Automated generation of job flow definitions

ABSTRACT

An apparatus includes a processor to: receive a request to generate a superset job flow replacing multiple job flows including an output job flow and preceding job flows previously performed to generate an output data object; identify a first subset of mid-flow data object(s) generated by preceding job flow(s) as input(s) to the output job flow to generate the output data object; identify a second subset of the mid-flow data object(s) generated by preceding job flow(s) as input(s) to other preceding job flow(s) generating the first subset; in response to a lack of a second subset, derive the superset job flow and/or corresponding DAG to include at least one task of the output job flow and at least one task of each preceding job flow that generated the first subset; and transmit an indication of the generation of the superset job flow.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/708,179 filed Dec. 9, 2019; which is a continuation-in-part of, andclaims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/587,965 filed Sep. 30, 2019; which is acontinuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/556,573 filed Aug.30, 2019; which is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/539,222 filed Aug. 13, 2019; which is a continuation of, and claimsthe benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/538,734 filed Aug. 12, 2019; which is acontinuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/223,518 filed Dec.18, 2018 (since issues as U.S. Pat. No. 10,380,185); which is acontinuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/205,424 filed Nov.30, 2018 (since issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,346,476); which is acontinuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/897,723 filed Feb.15, 2018 (since issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,331,495); all of which areincorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties for allpurposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/538,734 is also acontinuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/236,401 filed Dec.29, 2018; which is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/039,745 filed Jul. 19, 2018 (since issued as U.S. Pat. No.10,360,069); which is a continuation-in-part of, and claims the benefitof priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, the aforementioned U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/897,723 filed Feb. 15, 2018; all of which areincorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties for allpurposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/897,723 is a continuation-in-partof, and claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/896,613 filed Feb. 14, 2018 (since issuedas U.S. Pat. No. 10,002,029); which is a continuation-in-part of, andclaims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/851,869 filed Dec. 22, 2017 (since issued asU.S. Pat. No. 10,078,710); which is a continuation of, and claims thebenefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/613,516 filed Jun. 5, 2017 (since issued as U.S. Pat. No.9,852,013); which is a continuation of, and claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/425,886 filed Feb. 6, 2017 (since issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,684,544);which is a continuation of, and claims the benefit of priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/425,749 also filedon Feb. 6, 2017 (since issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,684,543); all of whichare incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties forall purposes.

This application also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/816,160 filed Mar.10, 2019, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety forall purposes. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/708,179 also claimsthe benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 62/776,691 filed Dec. 7, 2018, which isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes. U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/587,965 also claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/739,314 filed Sep. 30, 2018, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety for all purposes. U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/556,573 also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/725,186 filed Aug.30, 2018, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety forall purposes. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/538,734 also claimsthe benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. ProvisionalApplication Ser. No. 62/717,873 filed Aug. 12, 2018, and to U.S.Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/801,173 filed Feb. 5, 2019, both ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in their respectiveentireties for all purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/223,518 also claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/654,643 filed Apr. 9, 2018, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety for all purposes. U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/205,424 also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/631,462 filed Feb.15, 2018, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety forall purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/236,401 also claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/689,040 filed Jun. 22, 2018, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety for all purposes. U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/039,745 also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/534,678 filed Jul.19, 2017, and to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/560,506 filedSep. 19, 2017, both of which are incorporated herein by reference intheir respective entireties for all purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/896,613 also claims the benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser.No. 62/460,000 filed Feb. 16, 2017, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety for all purposes. U.S. patent application Ser.No. 15/425,749 also claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/292,078 filed Feb. 5,2016, and to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/297,454 filed Feb.19, 2016, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirrespective entireties for all purposes.

BACKGROUND

Distributed development and execution of task routines using pooled taskroutines with pooled data has advanced to an extent that the addition ofmechanisms for organization of development and to provide oversight forreproducibility and accountability have become increasingly desired. Invarious scientific, technical and other areas, the quantities of dataemployed in performing analysis tasks have become ever larger, therebymaking desirable the pooling of data objects to enable collaboration,share costs and/or improve access. Also, such large quantities of data,by virtue of the amount and detail of the information they contain, havebecome of such value that it has become desirable to find as many usesas possible for such data in peer reviewing and in as wide a variety ofanalysis tasks as possible. Thus, the pooling of components of analysisroutines to enable reuse, oversight and error checking has also becomedesirable.

SUMMARY

This summary is not intended to identify only key or essential featuresof the described subject matter, nor is it intended to be used inisolation to determine the scope of the described subject matter. Thesubject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portionsof the entire specification of this patent, any or all drawings, andeach claim.

An apparatus includes a processor and a storage to store instructionsthat, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to performoperations including receive, at the processor, and from a remote devicevia a network, a request to generate a superset job flow thatincorporates multiple job flows, wherein: each job flow of the multiplejob flows is defined by a corresponding job flow definition as a set oftasks to be performed by execution of a corresponding set of taskroutines; each performance of a job flow of the multiple job flows isdocumented by a corresponding instance log that specifies at least onedata object used as an input to the job flow and at least one other dataobject generated as an output of the job flow during the performance;the multiple job flows include an output job flow that has beenperformed to generate an output data object that the superset job flowis to be capable of re-generating; the multiple job flows include atleast one preceding job flow that has been performed to generate atleast one mid-flow data object necessary to the performance of theoutput job flow to generate the output data object; and for each jobflow of the multiple job flows, the job flow definition, thecorresponding set of tasks routines, and at least one instance log thatdocuments at least one performance of the job flow are stored within atleast one federated area. The processor is also caused to: analyze theinstance log that documents the performance of the output job flow thatgenerated the output data object to identify the job flow definition ofthe output job flow and to identify a first subset of the at least onemid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object of the firstsubset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow and used asinput to the output job flow; use the identification of each mid-flowdata object of the first subset to identify at least one instance logthat documents a performance of a preceding job flow that generated amid-flow data object of the first subset; analyze each instance log ofthe at least one instance log to identify a job flow definition of thecorresponding preceding job flow and to identify a second subset of theat least one mid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object ofthe second subset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow andused as an input to another preceding job flow; in response to a lack ofidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset, generatea superset job flow definition that defines the superset job flow as aset of tasks that includes at least one task specified in the job flowdefinition of the output job flow and at least one task specified in thejob flow definition of each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flowdata object of the first subset; generate a directed acyclic graph (DAG)of the superset job flow based on the superset job flow definition;store the DAG in the at least one federated area; and transmit anindication of the generation of the superset job flow to the remotedevice.

A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium includes instructions operable to causea processor to perform operations including receive, at the processor,and from a remote device via a network, a request to generate a supersetjob flow that incorporates multiple job flows, wherein: each job flow ofthe multiple job flows is defined by a corresponding job flow definitionas a set of tasks to be performed by execution of a corresponding set oftask routines; each performance of a job flow of the multiple job flowsis documented by a corresponding instance log that specifies at leastone data object used as an input to the job flow and at least one otherdata object generated as an output of the job flow during theperformance; the multiple job flows include an output job flow that hasbeen performed to generate an output data object that the superset jobflow is to be capable of re-generating; the multiple job flows includeat least one preceding job flow that has been performed to generate atleast one mid-flow data object necessary to the performance of theoutput job flow to generate the output data object; and for each jobflow of the multiple job flows, the job flow definition, thecorresponding set of tasks routines, and at least one instance log thatdocuments at least one performance of the job flow are stored within atleast one federated area. The processor is also caused to: analyze theinstance log that documents the performance of the output job flow thatgenerated the output data object to identify the job flow definition ofthe output job flow and to identify a first subset of the at least onemid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object of the firstsubset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow and used asinput to the output job flow; use the identification of each mid-flowdata object of the first subset to identify at least one instance logthat documents a performance of a preceding job flow that generated amid-flow data object of the first subset; analyze each instance log ofthe at least one instance log to identify a job flow definition of thecorresponding preceding job flow and to identify a second subset of theat least one mid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object ofthe second subset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow andused as an input to another preceding job flow; in response to a lack ofidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset, generatea superset job flow definition that defines the superset job flow as aset of tasks that includes at least one task specified in the job flowdefinition of the output job flow and at least one task specified in thejob flow definition of each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flowdata object of the first subset; generate a directed acyclic graph (DAG)of the superset job flow based on the superset job flow definition;store the DAG in the at least one federated area; and transmit anindication of the generation of the superset job flow to the remotedevice.

In response to an identification of a mid-flow data object in the secondsubset, the processor may be caused to generate the a superset job flowdefinition that defines the superset job flow as a set of tasks thatincludes at least one task specified in the job flow definition of theoutput job flow, at least one task specified in the job flow definitionof each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of thefirst subset, and at least one task specified in the job flow definitionof each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of thesecond subset.

The processor may be caused to: analyze the job flow definition of theoutput job flow to identify at least one task of the output job flowthat was not necessary to the generation of the output data object;prune the at least one task from the output job flow to generate apruned form of the output job flow; limit the identification of thefirst subset of the at least one mid-flow data object to one or moremid-flow data objects that were used as an input to the pruned form ofthe output job flow; and limit the at least one task specified in thejob flow definition of the output job flow that is included in thesuperset job flow definition to at least one task remaining in thepruned form of the output job flow.

The processor may be caused, for each preceding job flow that generateda mid-flow data object of the first subset, to perform operationsincluding: analyze the job flow definition of the preceding job flow toidentify at least one task of the preceding job flow that was notnecessary to the generation of a mid-flow data object of the firstsubset; prune the at least one task from the preceding job flow togenerate a pruned form of the preceding job flow; limit theidentification of the second subset of the at least one mid-flow dataobject to one or more mid-flow data objects that were used as an inputto the pruned form of the preceding job flow; and limit the at least onetask specified in the job flow definition of each preceding job flowthat is included in the superset job flow definition to at least onetask remaining in the pruned form of the preceding job flow.

The request may include a data object identifier that identifies theoutput data object, and the processor may be caused to performoperations including: use the data object identifier of the output dataobject to search, within the one or more federated areas, for theinstance log that documents the performance of the output job flow thatgenerated the output data object; and use, from the instance log thatdocuments the performance of the output job flow that generated theoutput data object of the output job flow, a job flow identifier thatidentifies the output job flow to search for the job flow definition ofthe output job flow within the one or more federated areas.

The request may include a job flow identifier of the output job flow,and the processor may be caused to perform operations including: use thejob flow identifier of the output job flow to search, within the one ormore federated areas, for the job flow definition for the output jobflow; analyze the job flow definition of the output job flow todetermine a quantity of data objects that are output by the output jobflow; use the job flow identifier of the output job flow to search,within the one or more federated areas, for any instance log thatdocuments a performance of the output job flow; and in response to anidentification of no more than one instance log that documents aperformance of the output job flow, and in response to a determinationthat the output job flow outputs more than one data object, transmit aprompt to the remote device to provide an indication of a selection ofthe output data object from among the more than one data objects.

In response to identification of more than one instance log thatdocuments a performance of the output job flow, the processor may becaused to transmit a prompt to the remote device to provide anindication of at least one of a selection of a performance from amongthe performances of the output job flow documented by the more than oneinstance log and a selection of the output data object.

The processor may be caused to perform operations including: generate aseries of DAGs that provide a visual indication of each preceding jobflow in relation to the output job flow, wherein the series of DAGsincludes the DAG of the superset job flow; and transmit the series ofDAGs to the remote device to enable a visual presentation of the seriesof DAGs by the remote device.

The remote device or personnel operating the remote device may have beengranted access to a subset of storage space provided for the storage ofobjects by the one or more DAGs, and the search for a job flowdefinition for each preceding job flow may be limited to the subset ofstorage space. In response to identification of an instance log thatdocuments a performance of a preceding job flow that generated amid-flow data object of the first subset or of the second subset, and inresponse to lack of finding the job flow definition of the preceding jobflow within the subset of storage space, the processor may be caused toperform operations including: generate the DAG of the superset job flowto include a visual indication of an inability to include the precedingjob flow in the superset job flow arising from the inability to find thejob flow definition for the preceding job flow; and transmit the DAG ofthe superset job flow to the remote device to enable a visualpresentation of the DAG with the visual indication.

The remote device or personnel operating the remote device may have beengranted access to a subset of storage space provided for the storage ofobjects by the one or more DAGs, and the search for objects necessary torepeat each performance of each preceding job flow may be limited to thesubset of storage space. In response to identification of an instancelog that documents a performance of a preceding job flow that generateda mid-flow data object of the first subset or of the second subset, andin response to a lack of finding a data object used as an input to theperformance of the preceding job flow within the subset of storagespace, the processor may be caused to perform operations including:generate the DAG of the superset job flow to include a visual indicationof an inability to include the preceding job flow in the superset jobflow arising from the inability to find the data object used as an inputto the performance of the preceding job flow; and transmit the DAG ofthe superset job flow to the remote device to enable a visualpresentation of the DAG with the visual indication.

A computer-implemented method includes receiving, by a processor, andfrom a remote device via a network, a request to generate a superset jobflow that incorporates multiple job flows, wherein: each job flow of themultiple job flows is defined by a corresponding job flow definition asa set of tasks to be performed by execution of a corresponding set oftask routines; each performance of a job flow of the multiple job flowsis documented by a corresponding instance log that specifies at leastone data object used as an input to the job flow and at least one otherdata object generated as an output of the job flow during theperformance; the multiple job flows include an output job flow that hasbeen performed to generate an output data object that the superset jobflow is to be capable of re-generating; the multiple job flows includeat least one preceding job flow that has been performed to generate atleast one mid-flow data object necessary to the performance of theoutput job flow to generate the output data object; and for each jobflow of the multiple job flows, the job flow definition, thecorresponding set of tasks routines, and at least one instance log thatdocuments at least one performance of the job flow are stored within atleast one federated area. The method also includes: analyzing, by theprocessor, the instance log that documents the performance of the outputjob flow that generated the output data object to identify the job flowdefinition of the output job flow and to identify a first subset of theat least one mid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object ofthe first subset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow andused as input to the output job flow; using, by the processor, theidentification of each mid-flow data object of the first subset toidentify at least one instance log that documents a performance of apreceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the firstsubset; analyzing, by the processor, each instance log of the at leastone instance log to identify a job flow definition of the correspondingpreceding job flow and to identify a second subset of the at least onemid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object of the secondsubset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow and used as aninput to another preceding job flow; in response to a lack ofidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset,generating, by the processor, a superset job flow definition thatdefines the superset job flow as a set of tasks that includes at leastone task specified in the job flow definition of the output job flow andat least one task specified in the job flow definition of each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset;generating, by the processor, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) of thesuperset job flow based on the superset job flow definition; storing theDAG in the at least one federated area; and transmitting, from theprocessor, an indication of the generation of the superset job flow tothe remote device.

The computer-implemented method may include, in response to anidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset,generating, by the processor, the a superset job flow definition thatdefines the superset job flow as a set of tasks that includes at leastone task specified in the job flow definition of the output job flow, atleast one task specified in the job flow definition of each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset, andat least one task specified in the job flow definition of each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the second subset.

The computer-implemented method may include: analyzing, by theprocessor, the job flow definition of the output job flow to identify atleast one task of the output job flow that was not necessary to thegeneration of the output data object; pruning, by the processor, the atleast one task from the output job flow to generate a pruned form of theoutput job flow; limiting, by the processor, the identification of thefirst subset of the at least one mid-flow data object to one or moremid-flow data objects that were used as an input to the pruned form ofthe output job flow; and limiting, by the processor, the at least onetask specified in the job flow definition of the output job flow that isincluded in the superset job flow definition to at least one taskremaining in the pruned form of the output job flow.

The computer-implemented method may include, for each preceding job flowthat generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset, performingoperations including: analyzing, by the processor, the job flowdefinition of the preceding job flow to identify at least one task ofthe preceding job flow that was not necessary to the generation of amid-flow data object of the first subset; pruning, by the processor, theat least one task from the preceding job flow to generate a pruned formof the preceding job flow; limiting, by the processor, theidentification of the second subset of the at least one mid-flow dataobject to one or more mid-flow data objects that were used as an inputto the pruned form of the preceding job flow; and limiting, by theprocessor, the at least one task specified in the job flow definition ofeach preceding job flow that is included in the superset job flowdefinition to at least one task remaining in the pruned form of thepreceding job flow.

The request may include a data object identifier that identifies theoutput data object, and the method may include: using, by the processor,the data object identifier of the output data object to search, withinthe one or more federated areas, for the instance log that documents theperformance of the output job flow that generated the output dataobject; and using, by the processor and from the instance log thatdocuments the performance of the output job flow that generated theoutput data object of the output job flow, a job flow identifier thatidentifies the output job flow to search for the job flow definition ofthe output job flow within the one or more federated areas.

The request may include a job flow identifier of the output job flow,and the method may include: using, by the processor, the job flowidentifier of the output job flow to search, within the one or morefederated areas, for the job flow definition for the output job flow;analyzing, by the processor, the job flow definition of the output jobflow to determine a quantity of data objects that are output by theoutput job flow; using, by the processor, the job flow identifier of theoutput job flow to search, within the one or more federated areas, forany instance log that documents a performance of the output job flow;and in response to an identification of no more than one instance logthat documents a performance of the output job flow, and in response toa determination that the output job flow outputs more than one dataobject, transmitting, from the processor, a prompt to the remote deviceto provide an indication of a selection of the output data object fromamong the more than one data objects.

The computer-implemented method may include, in response toidentification of more than one instance log that documents aperformance of the output job flow, transmitting, from the processor, aprompt to the remote device to provide an indication of at least one ofa selection of a performance from among the performances of the outputjob flow documented by the more than one instance log and a selection ofthe output data object.

The computer-implemented method may include: generating, by theprocessor, a series of DAGs that provide a visual indication of eachpreceding job flow in relation to the output job flow, wherein theseries of DAGs includes the DAG of the superset job flow; andtransmitting, from the processor, the series of DAGs to the remotedevice to enable a visual presentation of the series of DAGs by theremote device.

The remote device or personnel operating the remote device may have beengranted access to a subset of storage space provided for the storage ofobjects by the one or more DAGs, and the search for a job flowdefinition for each preceding job flow may be limited to the subset ofstorage space. The method may include, in response to identification ofan instance log that documents a performance of a preceding job flowthat generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset or of thesecond subset, and in response to lack of finding the job flowdefinition of the preceding job flow within the subset of storage space,performing operations including: generating, by the processor, the DAGof the superset job flow to include a visual indication of an inabilityto include the preceding job flow in the superset job flow arising fromthe inability to find the job flow definition for the preceding jobflow; and transmitting, by the processor, the DAG of the superset jobflow to the remote device to enable a visual presentation of the DAGwith the visual indication.

The remote device or personnel operating the remote device may have beengranted access to a subset of storage space provided for the storage ofobjects by the one or more DAGs, and the search for objects necessary torepeat each performance of each preceding job flow may be limited to thesubset of storage space. The method may include, in response toidentification of an instance log that documents a performance of apreceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the firstsubset or of the second subset, and in response to a lack of finding adata object used as an input to the performance of the preceding jobflow within the subset of storage space, performing operationsincluding: generate the DAG of the superset job flow to include a visualindication of an inability to include the preceding job flow in thesuperset job flow arising from the inability to find the data objectused as an input to the performance of the preceding job flow; andtransmit the DAG of the superset job flow to the remote device to enablea visual presentation of the DAG with the visual indication.

The foregoing, together with other features and embodiments, will becomemore apparent upon referring to the following specification, claims, andaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appendedfigures:

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram that provides an illustration of thehardware components of a computing system, according to some embodimentsof the present technology.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network including an example set ofdevices communicating with each other over an exchange system and via anetwork, according to some embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 3 illustrates a representation of a conceptual model of acommunications protocol system, according to some embodiments of thepresent technology.

FIG. 4 illustrates a communications grid computing system including avariety of control and worker nodes, according to some embodiments ofthe present technology.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for adjustinga communications grid or a work project in a communications grid after afailure of a node, according to some embodiments of the presenttechnology.

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of a communications grid computing systemincluding a control node and a worker node, according to someembodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process for executinga data analysis or processing project, according to some embodiments ofthe present technology.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram including components of an EventStream Processing Engine (ESPE), according to embodiments of the presenttechnology.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process includingoperations performed by an event stream processing engine, according tosome embodiments of the present technology.

FIG. 10 illustrates an ESP system interfacing between a publishingdevice and multiple event subscribing devices, according to embodimentsof the present technology.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process ofgenerating and using a machine-learning model according to some aspects.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example machine-learning model based on a neuralnetwork.

FIGS. 13A, 13B, 13C, 13D, 13E, 13F and 13G, together, illustrate anexample embodiment of a distributed processing system.

FIGS. 14A and 14B, together, illustrate an example alternate embodimentof a distributed processing system.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C, 15D, 15E, 15F, 15G, 15H, 15I, 15J and 15K,together, illustrate aspects of example hierarchical sets of federatedareas and their formation.

FIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E, 16F, 16G, 16H, 16I, 16J and 16K,together, illustrate an example of defining, performing and documentinga job flow.

FIGS. 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D, 17E and 17F, together, illustrate an exampleof selectively storing, translating and assigning identifiers to objectsin federated area(s).

FIGS. 18A, 18B, 18C, 18D, 18E, 18F and 18G, together, illustrate anexample of organizing, indexing and retrieving objects from federatedarea(s).

FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C, 19D and 19E, together, illustrate aspects of thegeneration and use of a DAG.

FIGS. 20A, 20B, 20C and 20D, together, illustrate aspects of an exampleset of job flows and their use in combination to generate an output dataobject.

FIGS. 21A, 21B, 21C, 21D, 21E, 21F, 21G and 21H, together, illustrate anexample of generating a superset job flow to repeat the generation of adata object from a set of job flows.

FIGS. 22A, 22B and 22C, together, illustrate portions of an alternateexample of generation of a data object.

FIGS. 23A and 23B, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logicflow of a federated device adding a requested federated area related toone or more other federated areas.

FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C, 24D, 24E, 24F and 24G, together, illustrate anexample embodiment of a logic flow of a federated device storing objectsin a federated area.

FIGS. 25A, 25B and 25C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of alogic flow of a federated device storing a task routine in a federatedarea

FIGS. 26A, 26B and 26C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of alogic flow of a federated device storing a job flow definition in afederated area.

FIGS. 27A, 27B, 27C and 27D, together, illustrate an example embodimentof a logic flow of a federated device deleting objects stored within afederated area.

FIGS. 28A and 28B, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logicflow of a federated device either repeating an earlier performance of ajob flow that generated a specified result report or instance log, ortransmitting objects to enable a requesting device to do so.

FIGS. 29A and 29B, together, illustrate another example embodiment of alogic flow of a federated device repeating an earlier performance of ajob flow.

FIGS. 30A, 30B, 30C and 30D, together, illustrate an example embodimentof a logic flow of a federated device performing a job flow.

FIGS. 31A and 31B, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logicflow of a federated device storing a data object in a federated area.

FIGS. 32A, 32B and 32C, together, illustrate another example embodimentof a logic flow of a federated device performing a job flow.

FIGS. 33A, 33B and 33C, together, illustrate another example embodimentof a logic flow of a federated device performing a set of tasksspecified in a request as a job flow.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments described herein are generally directed totechniques for the automated derivation of a superset job flow capableof replacing multiple other job flows in generating a particular outputdata object that has been previously generated through the performancesof the multiple job flows. Once so derived, the superset job flow maythen be used in place of the multiple job flows to either repeat thegeneration of the particular output data object or to generate othersimilar output data objects, thereby reducing the number of distinct jobflows that must be explicitly requested be performed to accomplish thegeneration of the same output. The automation of the derivation of thesuperset job flow may enable personnel with little or no programmingskills to nonetheless cause the superset job flow to be derived from atleast a portion of each of the multiple job flows. More precisely, thejob flow definition that defines the superset job flow is derived basedon at least a portion of the job flow definitions that define each ofthe multiple job flows.

The multiple job flows to be replaced by such a superset job flow mayhave been previously performed in a particular temporal order, startingwith one or more preexisting data objects being provided to the firstone(s) of the multiple job flows to be performed (i.e., the input jobflow(s)). The performance(s) of those first one(s) of the multiple jobflows may, in turn, have generated one or more data objects that weresubsequently been used directly as inputs to other(s) of the multiplejob flows, and so on following the temporal order, until one or more ofthe multiple job flows were performed that generated one or more dataobjects that were directly provided to a last job flow among themultiple job flows that directly generated the particular output dataobject (i.e., the output job flow).

The derivation of the superset job flow may begin with the receipt, byone or more federated devices, of a request to so derive it, where therequest may employ different object identifiers to explicitly identifydifferent ones of the output job flow, the particular output data objectand/or the past performance of the output job flow by which theparticular output data object was originally generated. Morespecifically, the one or more federated devices may receive a request togenerate the job flow definition for such a superset job flow in whichthe particular output data object is identified, and may use the dataobject identifier of that output data object to identify an instance logdocumenting the particular past performance of the output job flow bywhich the output data object was directly generated, and therebyidentify the output job flow of the particular past performance.Alternatively, the one or more federated devices may receive a requestto generate the job flow definition for such a superset job flow inwhich the output job flow is identified, and may use the job flowidentifier of the output job flow to identify instance log(s)documenting one or more past performances of the output job flow fromwhich a selection of the particular past performance may be prompted tobe made, which would thereby identify the particular output data object.

Regardless of the exact manner in which the particular output dataobject, the output job flow and/or the particular past performance ofthe output job flow that generated the particular output data object areidentified in the request, the one or more federated devices may performthe derivation of the superset job flow in a manner that proceedsthrough the multiple job flows in the reverse of the order in which theywere performed to generate the particular output data object. Thus, thederivation of the superset job flow may begin by analyzing aspects ofthe past performance of the output job flow (which again, would haveoccurred last) to identify which of one(s) of the other job flows amongthe multiple job flows were performed at a time immediately precedingthe performance of the output job flow to directly provide the outputjob flow with data object(s) that were directly needed as inputs to theperformance of the output job flow. Then, aspects of the pastperformance(s) of each of the preceding job flow(s) that were performedto directly provide input(s) to the output job flow are similarlyanalyzed to identify any of the multiple job flows that were performedat a still earlier time to provide input(s) to the job flow(s) thatdirectly provided input(s) to the output job flow. Such a process ofproceeding in reverse order through the performances of the multiple jobflows, starting with the output job flow, continues until each job flowof the multiple job flows is identified so that at least a portion ofeach may then be incorporated into the superset job flow.

More specifically, the one or more federated devices may begin theautomated derivation of the superset job flow by analyzing the outputjob flow to identify portion(s) thereof that were not required in theparticular past performance to generate the particular output dataobject, and may prune those portion(s) to derive a pruned form of theoutput job flow to be included in the superset job flow. The one or morefederated devices may then use indications of one or more input dataobjects that were directly used in the particular past performance asinputs to the pruned form of the output job flow to generate theparticular output data object to identify one or more preceding jobflows by which each of those one or more input data objects may havebeen generated. The one or more federated devices may then analyze eachof the one or more preceding job flows to identify portion(s) of eachthat were not required to generate those one or more input data objects,and may prune those portion(s) to derive a pruned form of each to alsobe included in the superset job flow. The one or more federated devicesmay then use indications of one or more input data objects to the prunedform of each of those one or more preceding job flows to identify stillmore preceding job flows, and so on, until no further preceding jobflows are able to be identified from which pruned forms may be derivedfor inclusion in the superset job flow. In this way, the superset jobflow may be formed starting with the last task of the output job flowthat was the last of the multiple job flows to be performed to generatethe particular output data object, and proceeding towards the earliesttask(s) to be performed within the one(s) of the multiple job flows tobe performed first.

The response to a request to derive such a superset job flow may includethe provision of a visual representation of the superset job flow. Sucha visual representation may include indications of aspects of the outputjob flow and each of the preceding job flows, and/or what portions ofeach may have been pruned as part of deriving the superset job flow. Insome embodiments, it may be that such a visual representation of thesuperset job flow is part of a series of visual representations that maybe generated to provide a step-by-step visual presentation of theidentification and/or pruning of the output job flow and/or of eachpreceding job flow. Alternatively or additionally, it may be that such avisual representation of the superset job flow is provided as part of agraphical user interface (GUI) of a graphical editor that may enable thesuperset job flow to be manually modified, following its derivation, toundo at least some of the pruning that has been performed and/or to makestill other changes. As with the automation of the derivation of thesuperset job flow, such a graphical presentation of the superset jobflow may further aid personnel with little or no programming skills inthe development of such a new job flow by affording such personnel anopportunity to understand various aspects of the superset job flow thatthey have just caused to be created. Where such a visual presentation ismade as part of a GUI for a graphical editor, the graphical presentationof the newly derived superset job flow may provide an advantageousstarting point for what may be some relatively minor additionalmodifications to impart particular desired characteristics to thesuperset job flow.

The extent to which preceding job flows may be identified for inclusionwithin the superset job flow (either in a pruned form or withoutpruning) may be limited by what job flows have been stored within theone or more federated areas maintained by the one or more federateddevices. Stated differently, if a job flow was performed externally onanother device to generate a data object that served as an input dataobject to the past generation of the particular output data object, andif that externally generated input data object is provided to the one ormore federated devices for storage, but not the job flow definition ofthat externally performed job flow, then information needed to includethat externally performed job flow in the superset job flow is simplynot available to the one or more federated devices.

Alternatively or additionally, the extent to which preceding job flowsmay be identified for inclusion within the superset job flow may belimited by what federated areas are authorized to be accessed as part ofsearching for preceding job flows. More specifically, the particularpersonnel originating the request and/or the requesting device fromwhich the request is received may be associated with an authorization toaccess a particular defined set of one or more particular federatedareas. Where an indication is found of there being another preceding jobflow for which the job flow definition is not accessible due to lack ofauthorization to access the federated area within which it is stored,the visual representation of the superset job flow may be generated toinclude an indication that one or more additional preceding job flows doexist, but are unable to be included in the superset job flow due tolack of authorization to access their job flow definition(s). Such anindication may additionally include contact information by which arequest may be made to obtain the necessary authorization.

Such limitations on authorization to access a job flow definition of apreceding job flow may be at least partially based on the location,within a hierarchy of federated areas, of each federated area to whichauthorization is granted. Alternatively or additionally, where therequesting device is associated with an alternate developmentenvironment with which objects area shared through the use ofsynchronized transfer areas, such limitations on authorization to accessa job flow definition of a preceding job flow may be at least partiallybased on the location, within a hierarchy of federated areas, of eachfederated area in which one of such a synchronized transfer area hasbeen defined. Also where the requesting device is associated with analternate development environment in which a secondary programminglanguage other than the primary programming language usually associatedwith federated areas is used, the job flow definition of the supersetjob flow, and/or the objects required to derive and/or provide a visualrepresentation of the superset job flow, may be translated between suchlanguages.

The storage of objects (e.g., data objects, task routines, macros oftask routines, job flow definitions, instance logs of past performancesof job flows, and/or DAGs of task routines and/or job flows) may beeffected using a grid of devices. Such a grid may provide distributedstorage for data objects that include large data sets, complex sets oftask routines for the performance of various analyses divided into tasksspecified in job flows, and/or instance logs that document an extensivehistory of past performances of such analyses. Such distributed storagemay be used to provide one or both of fault tolerance and/or fasteraccess through the use of parallelism. In various embodiments, theobjects stored within a federated area or a set of federated areas maybe organized in any of a variety of ways that may employ any of avariety of indexing systems to enable access. By way of example, one ormore databases may be defined by the one or more federated devices toimprove efficiency in accessing data objects, task routines and/orinstance logs of performances of analyses.

In some embodiments, the grid of devices may be a grid of federateddevices that internally provide storage spaces within which federatedarea(s) may be defined for the storage of objects. Alternatively, thefederated devices of such a grid may each be coupled to one or morestorage devices that are operated under the control of the grid offederated devices. In such embodiments, each of the federated devicesmay provide the processing resources by which various operations may beperformed in association with the objects. In other embodiments, thegrid of devices may be a grid of storage devices within which federatedarea(s) may be defined for the storage of objects. In such embodiments,each of the storage devices may provide at least some degree ofprocessing resources that may be of lesser capability than theprocessing resources of the federated device(s), but may still besufficient for use in performing at least some limited range ofoperations in association with the objects.

Regardless of the type of device used to form such a grid, in someembodiments, each of those devices may store whole objects such thateach object (including each data object) is stored as a single undividedobject within a single storage device, and not stored in a distributedmanner across two or more storage devices. In other embodiments, atleast data objects that exceed a predetermined threshold size may eachbe stored in a distributed manner in which each such data object isdivided into multiple blocks that are distributed for storage amongmultiple devices. In still other embodiments, a combination of suchapproaches may be used in which each object that is smaller than thepredetermined threshold size is stored as an undivided object entirelywithin a single one of the devices, while each object that is largerthan the predetermined threshold size is divided into blocks that arestored in a distributed manner across multiple ones of the devices. Insome of such grids of devices that enable the storage of objects in adistributed manner, the devices of that grid may cooperate to implementa distributed file system with various data organization features thatmay fit one or more specific industrial standards. By way of a specificexample, the multiple devices of such a grid may cooperate amongthemselves the HADOOP® distributed file system (HDFS) promulgated by theApache™ Software Foundation of Wakefield, Mass., USA.

The one or more federated devices may define at least some of thestorage space provided by the one or more federated devices and/or theone or more storage devices as providing federated area(s) in which theobjects are stored and to which access is controlled by the one or morefederated devices (or one or more other devices separately providingaccess control). By way of example, access to a federated area may belimited to one or more particular authorized persons and/or one or moreparticular authorized entities (e.g., scholastic entities, governmentalentities, business entities, etc.). Alternatively or additionally,access to a federated area may be limited to one or more particularauthorized devices that may be operated under the control of one or moreparticular persons and/or entities.

In embodiments in which at least some objects are to be stored asundivided objects within storage space provided by a single device(s)such that no object is to be stored in a distributed manner across twoor more devices, the one or more federated devices may define eachfederated area to be entirely contained within a single federated deviceor storage device. Alternatively, at least one federated area may bedefined to span two or more federated devices and/or storage devices,but each object stored therein may still be stored as an undividedobject within just one of the two or more storage devices. Thus, whilethere may be one or more federated areas that span multiple devices,there may be no objects stored in a manner that does so. In embodimentsin which at least data objects that exceed the predetermined thresholdsize are each to be stored in a distributed manner in which each suchdata object is divided into multiple blocks, the one or more federateddevices may define at least one federated area to span multiple devicesamong which the blocks of such a data object may be distributed forstorage. Thus, such a data object may be caused to span multiplefederated devices and/or storage devices within a single federated areathat also does so. In still other embodiments in which a combination ofsuch approaches is to be used, a mixture of federated areas that arecontained within a single device and that span multiple devices may bedefined. Additionally, at least one federated area that is defined tospan multiple devices may store a mixture of objects that are eachstored as an undivided object within a single one of the multipledevices and objects that are divided into blocks that are distributedamong the multiple devices for storage in a manner that spans themultiple devices.

In various embodiments, the manner in which a federated area is used maybe limited to the storage and retrieval of objects with controlledaccess, while in other embodiments, the manner in which a federated areais used may additionally include the performances of analyses as jobflows using the objects stored therein. In support of enabling at leastthe storage of objects within one or more federated areas, the one ormore federated devices may provide a portal accessible to other devicesvia a network for use in storing and retrieving objects associated withthe performances of analyses by other devices. More specifically, one ormore source devices may access the portal through the network to providethe one or more federated devices with the data objects, task routines,job flow definitions, DAGs and/or instance logs associated withcompleted performances of analyses by the one or more source devices forstorage within one or more federated areas for the purpose ofmemorializing the details of those performances. Subsequently, one ormore reviewing devices may access the portal through the network toretrieve such objects from one or more federated area through the one ormore federated devices for the purpose of independently confirmingaspects of such the performances.

As an alternative to or in addition to the provision of such a portal,the one or more federated devices may be caused to repeatedlysynchronize the contents of at least a portion of at least one selectedfederated area with an external storage space maintained by anotherdevice in a bidirectional manner, such as another source code repositorysystem (e.g., GitHub™). More specifically, as object(s) within theexternal storage space of the other device are changed in any of anumber of ways (e.g., added, edited, deleted, etc.), correspondingchanges may be automatically made to corresponding objects maintainedwithin the federated area to synchronize the contents therebetween.Similarly, as object(s) within the federated area are changed in any ofa number of ways, corresponding changes may be automatically made tocorresponding objects maintained within the external storage space ofthe other device, again, to synchronize the contents therebetween.

Among the objects that may be stored in a federated area may be numerousdata objects that may include data sets. Each data set may be made up ofany of a variety of types of data concerning any of a wide variety ofsubjects. By way of example, a data set may include scientificobservation data concerning geological and/or meteorological events, orfrom sensors in laboratory experiments in areas such as particlephysics. By way of another example, a data set may include indicationsof activities performed by a random sample of individuals of apopulation of people in a selected country or municipality, or of apopulation of a threatened species under study in the wild. By way ofstill another example, a data set may include data descriptive ofcharacteristics of one or more neural networks, such as hyperparametersthat specify the quantity and/or organization of nodes within the neuralnetwork, and/or such as parameters weights and biases of each of thenodes that may have been derived through a training process in which theneural network is trained to perform a function. In some embodiments, asingle data set or a set of data sets may include data descriptive ofmultiple neural networks that are used together in an ensemble toperform a function.

Regardless of the types of data each such data set may contain, somedata sets stored in a federated area may include data sets employed asinputs (or “input data objects”) to the performance of one or more jobflows (e.g., flow input data sets), and/or other data sets stored in afederated area may include data sets that are generated as outputs (or“output data objects”) of past performance(s) of one or more job flows(e.g., result reports). It should be noted that some data sets thatserve as inputs to the performance of one job flow may be generated asan output of a past performance of another job flow (e.g., a resultreport becoming an flow input data set). Still other data sets may beboth generated as an output and used as input during a singleperformance of a job flow, such as a data set generated as an output bythe performance of one task of a job flow for use by one or more othertasks of that same job flow as an input (e.g., mid-flow data sets).

Also among the objects that may be stored in a federated area may be acombination of task routines and a job flow definition that, together,provide a combination of definitions and executable instructions thatenable the performance of an analysis as a job flow that is made up of aset of tasks to be performed. More precisely, executable instructionsfor the performance of an analysis may be required to be stored as a setof task routines where each task routine is made up of executableinstructions to perform a task, and a job flow definition that specifiesaspects of how the set of task routines are executed together to performthe analysis. In some embodiments, the definition of each task routinemay include definitions of the inputs and outputs thereof. In a job flowdefinition, each task to be performed may be assigned a flow taskidentifier, and each task routine that is to perform a particular taskmay be assigned the flow task identifier of that particular task to makeeach task routine retrievable by the flow task identifier of the task itperforms. Thus, each performance of an analysis may entail a parsing ofthe job flow definition for that analysis to retrieve the flow taskidentifiers of the tasks to be performed, and may then entail theretrieval of a task routine required to perform each of those tasks.

As will be explained greater detail, such breaking up of an analysisinto a job flow made up of tasks performed by the execution of taskroutines that are stored in federated area(s) may be relied upon toenable code reuse in which individual task routines may be shared amongthe job flows of multiple analyses. Such reuse of a task routineoriginally developed for one analysis by another analysis may be verysimply effected by specifying the flow task identifier of thecorresponding task in the job flow definition for the other analysis.Additionally, reuse may extend to the job flow definitions, themselves,as the availability of job flow definitions in a federated area mayobviate the need to develop of a new analysis routine where there is ajob flow definition already available that defines the tasks to beperformed in an analysis that may be deemed suitable. Thus, among theobjects that may be stored in a federated area may be numerousselectable and reusable task routines and job flow definitions.

Although an analysis routine may be implemented, as just described, as asingle job flow that defines a set of tasks to be performed in aspecified order, it may be deemed desirable to implement a relativelylarge and/or complex analysis routine as multiple job flows that are,themselves, performed in a specified order. More precisely, it may bedeemed desirable for a relatively large and/or complex analysis routineto be developed as multiple job flows to enable the development effortto be distributed among multiple developers and/or teams of developers,with the intention to combine the multiple job flows into a single“superset” job flow once such a distributed development effort iscompleted. Alternatively, it may be that a superset job flow arises moreorganically as a result of different developers or teams of developershaving minimal connection with each other independent develop each ofmultiple job flows that, at a subsequent time, are determined to becapable of being combined to implement a relatively large and/or complexanalysis.

Regardless of what the exact motivation may be for the development of asuperset job flow, the ability for a data set output by the performanceof one job flow to be used as an input to a subsequent performance ofanother job flow serves to enable the formation of a superset job flow.In such a superset job flow, at least a portion of each job flow of theset of job flows from which the superset job flow is derived may becaused to be specified to be performed together in an order that isbased on dependencies thereamong that arise from each instance in whichan output data object generated by the performance of one of the jobflows becomes an input data object to the performance of another of thejob flows. Thus, the job flow definition of such a superset job flow maybe generated by combining information from the job flow definitions ofeach of the job flows of the set of job flows. The job flow definitionfor the superset job flow may then simply be stored in a federated areato enable access to it, and thereby, enable the performance of thesuperset job flow.

In such a superset job flow, each job flow therein that outputs a dataobject that is not also used as an input to one of the other job flowstherein may be designated an output job flow. Correspondingly, each jobflow therein that uses a job data object as an input that is notgenerated by one of the other job flows therein may be designated aninput job flow. Due to dependencies among the job flows within asuperset job flow, it is expected that input job flows would precedeoutput job flows in the order in which they are to be performed, thoughan exception is possible where a job flow therein is both an input jobflow and an output job flow.

In some embodiments, a job flow definition may be stored withinfederated area(s) as a file or other type of data structure in which thejob flow definition is represented as a DAG (directed acyclic graph).Alternatively or additionally, a file or other type of data structuremay be used that organizes aspects of the job flow definition in amanner that enables a DAG to be directly derived therefrom. Such a fileor data structure may directly indicate an order of performance oftasks, or may specify dependencies between inputs and outputs of eachtask to enable an order of performance to be derived. By way of example,an array may be used in which there is an entry for each task routinethat includes specifications of its inputs, its outputs and/ordependencies on data objects that may be provided as one or more outputsof one or more other task routines. Thus, a DAG may be usable tovisually portray the relative order in which specified tasks are to beperformed, while still being interpretable by federated devices and/orother devices that may be employed to perform the portrayed job flow.Such a form of a job flow definition may be deemed desirable to enablean efficient presentation of the job flow on a display of a reviewingdevice as a DAG. Thus, review of aspects of a performance of an analysismay be made easier by such a graphical representation of the analysis asa job flow.

The tasks that may be performed by any of the numerous tasks routinesmay include any of a variety of data analysis tasks, including and notlimited to searches for one or more particular data items, and/orstatistical analyses such as aggregation, identifying and quantifyingtrends, subsampling, calculating values that characterize at least asubset of the data items within a data object, deriving models, testinghypothesis with such derived models, making predictions, generatingsimulated samples, etc. The tasks that may be performed may also includeany of a variety of data transformation tasks, including and not limitedto, sorting operations, row and/or column-based mathematical operations,filtering of rows and/or columns based on the values of data itemswithin a specified row or column, and/or reordering of at least aspecified subset of data items within a data object into a specifiedascending, descending or other order. Alternatively or additionally, thetasks that may be performed by any of the numerous task routines mayinclude any of a variety of data normalization tasks, including and notlimited to, normalizing time values, date values, monetary values,character spacing, use of delimiter characters and/or codes, and/orother aspects of formatting employed in representing data items withinone or more data objects. The tasks performed may also include, and arenot limited to, normalizing use of big or little Endian encoding ofbinary values, use or lack of use of sign bits, the quantity of bits tobe employed in representations of integers and/or floating point values(e.g., bytes, words, doublewords or quadwords), etc. Also alternativelyor additionally, the tasks that may be performed may include tasks totrain one or more neural networks for use, tasks to test one or moretrained neural networks, tasks to coordinate a transition to the use ofone or more trained neural networks to perform an analysis from the useof a non-neuromorphic approach to performing the analysis, and/or tasksto store, retrieve and/or deploy a data set that specifies parametersand/or hyper parameters of one or more neural networks. By way ofexample, such tasks may include tasks to train, test, and/or coordinatea transition to using, an ensemble of neural networks such as a chain ofneural networks.

By way of example, tasks that may be performed may include the training,testing, and/or use of a chain of neural networks to generate timeseries predictions. Each neural network of such a neural network chainmay be trained, and then used, to provide a portion of the time seriesprediction that covers a different subrange of time that make up thefull range of time covered by the time series prediction. The neuralnetworks may be interconnected such that each neural network in theneural network chain may receive, as a subset of its inputs, the outputsof each of the preceding neural networks by which each of thosepreceding neural networks provide their portion of the time seriesprediction. The neural networks may be trained, one at a time, startingwith the first neural network in the chain. To reduce overall trainingtime, a form of transferred learning may be employed in which eachneural network, as a starting point for its training, is provided withthe weights and biases representing what was learned by the precedingneural network.

The set of tasks that may be specified by the job flow definitions maybe any of a wide variety of combinations of analysis, normalizationand/or transformation tasks. The result reports generated throughperformances of the tasks as directed by each of the job flowdefinitions may include any of a wide variety of quantities and/or sizesof data. In some embodiments, one or more of the result reportsgenerated may contain one or more data sets that may be provided asinputs to the performances of still other analyses, and/or may beprovided to a reviewing device to be presented on a display thereof inany of a wide variety of types of visualization. In other embodiments,each of one or more of the result reports generated may primarilyinclude an indication of a prediction and/or conclusion reached throughthe performance of an analysis that generated the result report as anoutput.

Additionally among the objects that may be stored in a federated areamay be numerous instance logs that may each provide a record of variousdetails of a single past performance of a job flow. More specifically,each instance log may provide indications of when a performance of a jobflow occurred, along with identifiers of various objects stored withinfederated area(s) that were used and/or generated in that performance.Among those identifiers may be an identifier of the job flow definitionthat defines the job flow of an analysis that was performed, identifiersfor all of the task routines executed in that performance, identifiersfor any data objects employed as an input (e.g., input data sets), andidentifiers for any data objects generated as an output (e.g., a resultreport that may include one or more output data sets).

The one or more federated devices may assign such identifiers to dataobjects, task routines and/or job flow definitions as each is storedand/or generated within a federated area to enable such use ofidentifiers in the instance logs. In some embodiments, the identifierfor each such object may be generated by taking a hash of at least aportion of that object to generate a hash value to be used as theidentifier with at least a very high likelihood that the identifiergenerated for each such object is unique. Such use of a hash algorithmmay have the advantage of enabling the generation of identifiers forobjects that are highly likely to be unique with no other input than theobjects, themselves, and this may aid in ensuring that such anidentifier generated for an object by one federated device will beidentical to the identifier that would be generated for the same objectby another device.

Where task routines are concerned, it should be noted that the uniqueidentifier generated and assigned to each task routine is in addition tothe flow task identifier that identifies what task is performed by eachtask routine, and which are employed by the job flow definitions tospecify the tasks to be performed in a job flow. As will be explained ingreater detail, for each task identified in a job flow definition by aflow task identifier, there may be multiple task routines to choose fromto perform that task, and each of those task routines may be assigned adifferent identifier by the one or more federated devices to enable eachof those task routines to be uniquely identified in an instance log.Where instance logs are concerned, the identifier assigned to eachinstance log may, instead of being a hash taken of that instance log, bea concatenation or other form of combination of the identifiers of theobjects employed in the past performance that is documented by thatinstance log. In this way, and as will be explained in greater detail,the identifier assigned to each instance log may, itself, become usefulas a tool to locating a specific instance log that documents a specificpast performance.

The assignment of a unique identifier to each object (or at least anidentifier that is highly likely to be unique to each object) enableseach object to be subsequently retrieved from storage to satisfy arequest received by a federated device to access one or more specificobjects in which the request specifies the one or more specific objectsby their identifiers. Alternatively, requests may be received to provideaccess to multiple objects in which the multiple objects are specifiedmore indirectly. By way of example, a request may be received to provideaccess to a complete set of the objects that would be needed by therequesting device to perform a job flow with specified data set(s)serving as inputs, where it is the job flow definition and the dataset(s) that are directly identified in the request. Responding to such arequest may entail the retrieval of the specified job flow definitionand the specified data set(s) by the one or more federated devices,followed by the retrieval of the flow task identifiers for the tasks tobe performed from the job flow definition, followed by the use of theflow task identifiers to retrieve the most current version of taskroutine to perform each task, and then followed by the transmission ofthe specified job flow definition, the specified data set(s) and theretrieved task routines to the requesting device. By way of anotherexample, a request may be received to provide access to the objects thatare identified by an instance log as having been employed in a pastperformance of a job flow, where it is the instance log that is directlyidentified by its identifier in the request. Responding to such arequest may entail the retrieval of the specified instance log by one ormore federated devices, followed by the retrieval of the identifiers ofother objects from that instance log, and then followed by the retrievaland transmission of each of those other objects to the device from whichthe request was received. As will be explained in greater detail, stillother forms of indirect reference to objects stored within federatedarea(s) may be used in various requests.

In various embodiments, the one or more federated devices may receive arequest to provide one or more related objects together in a packagedform that incorporates one or more features that enable theestablishment of one or more new federated areas that contain therelated objects within the requesting device or within another device towhich the packaged form may be relayed. In some embodiments, thepackaged form may be that of a “zip” file in which the one or morerelated objects are compressed together into a single file that may alsoinclude executable code that enables the file to decompress itself, andin so doing, may also instantiate the one or more new federated areas.Such a packaged form may additionally include various executableroutines and/or data structures (e.g., indications of hash values, suchas checksum values, etc.) that enable the integrity of the one or morerelated objects to be confirmed, and/or that enable job flows based onthe one or more related objects to be performed. In generating thepackaged form, the one or more federated devices may employ variouscriteria specified in the request for which objects are to be providedin the packaged form to confirm that the objects so provided are acomplete enough set of objects as to enable any job flow that may bedefined by those objects to be properly performed.

In various embodiments, the use of federated area(s) may go beyond justthe storage and/or retrieval of objects, and may include the use ofthose stored objects by the one or more federated devices to perform jobflows. In such embodiments, the one or more federated devices mayreceive requests (e.g., via the portal) from other devices to performvarious analyses that have been defined as job flows, and to provide anindication of the results to those other devices. More specifically, inresponse to such a request, the one or more federated devices mayexecute a combination of task routines to perform tasks of a job flowdescribed in a job flow definition within a federated area to therebyperform an analysis with one or more data objects, all of which arestored in one or more federated areas. In so doing, the one or morefederated devices may generate an instance log for storage within afederated area that documents the performances of the analysis,including identifiers of data objects used and/or generated, identifiersof task routines executed, and the identifier of the job flow definitionthat specifies the task routines to be executed to perform the analysisas a job flow.

In some of such embodiments, the one or more federated devices may benodes of a grid of federated devices across which the tasks of arequested performance of an analysis may be distributed. The provisionof a grid of the federated devices may make available considerableshared processing and/or storage resources to allow such a grid toitself perform complex analyses of large quantities of data, while stillallowing a detailed review of aspects of the performance of thatanalysis in situations where questions may arise concerning dataquality, correctness of assumptions made and/or coding errors. Duringthe performance of a job flow, the one or more federated devices mayanalyze the job flow definition for the job flow to identifyopportunities to perform multiple tasks in parallel based ondependencies among the tasks in which data generated as an output by onetask is needed as an input to another. Such opportunities for parallelperformances may be utilized as opportunities to more thoroughly spreadthe performances of the multiple tasks among more processor threadsand/or cores, among more processors and/or among more federated devices.

However, it should be noted that other embodiments are possible in whicheach of the multiple storage devices may incorporate sufficientprocessing resources to enable at least a subset of job flows to beperformed by the multiple storage devices in addition to and/or in lieuof the one or more federated devices doing so. In some of suchembodiments, whether the processing resources of the one or morefederated devices are employed to perform a particular job flow or theprocessing resources of multiple storage devices are employed to do somay be determined based on a variety of aspects associated with themanner in which one or more of the objects needed to perform the jobflow are stored. At least in the case of data objects used as inputs,such aspects may include, and are not limited to, which federated areaeach such data object is stored within, which federated device(s) and/orstorage device(s) each such data object is stored within, the size ofsuch data objects, whether such data objects are stored in an undividedmanner or a distributed manner, and/or whether such data objects thatare stored in a distributed manner are in a distributable form.

The one or more federated devices may store a set of indications of suchaspects of storage for each object stored within a federated area. Insome embodiments, the one or more federated devices may generate aseparate object location identifier for each object in addition to or inlieu of the object identifier generated for each object. In response tothe receipt of a request to perform any of a variety of operations,including the retrieval of objects to transmit to another device or theperformance of a job flow, the one or more federated devices mayretrieve the indications of such aspects of storage from the objectlocation identifier for each object that is to be accessed. The one ormore federated devices may then use the retrieved indications inretrieving those objects and/or in determining whether to use theprocessing resources of the device(s) in which one or more of theobjects are stored and/or the processing resources of other device(s) inperforming a job flow.

By way of example, where a data set that is required as an input to ajob flow is sufficiently large (e.g., exceeds a predetermined thresholdsize) that it has been divided into multiple blocks and stored in adistributed manner among multiple storage devices, it may be deemeddesirable to employ the processing resources of the multiple storagedevices among which that data set is distributed to perform the job flowso as to avoid incurring the overhead of transmitting such a large dataset to the one or more federated devices so as to use the processingresources of the one or more federated devices to perform the job flow.Stated differently, it may be deemed desirable to essentially use thedata set in situ within the storage devices in which it is alreadystored. This may be in spite of the one or more federated devices havingsuperior processing resources such that the performance of one or moreof the tasks of the job flow may be accomplished more quickly and/orefficiently using those processing resources, but where the overhead intransmitted the data set to the one or more federated devices wouldoverwhelm the benefits of using those processing resources. In this way,the transmission of any portion of the data set among the storage and/orfederated devices may be entirely avoided by the job flow beingperformed within the multiple storage devices among which the blocks ofthe data set are locally stored, and at least partially in parallelamong those multiple storage devices.

Also among the aspects of the storage of at least data objects for whichindications may be stored may be such aspects as their origins. Moreprecisely, for each data object, indications may be stored as to whethereach data object was generated as an output of a performance of a jobflow within the distributed processing system, was generated as anoutput of a performance of a job flow within an other processing deviceand/or system before being provided to the distributed processingsystem, and/or was provided to the distributed processing system withoutany indication of its origins. In some embodiments, such indications ofdata object origins may be useful when the functionality of one or morejob flows is being analyzed as part of enforcing accountability forsources of errors that may be discovered in past performances of jobflows. By way of example, it may be deemed useful to know whether a dataobject used as an input to a job flow was generated in a pastperformance of another job flow, or was possibly generated in anentirely different way by an outside source, in a situation in which thedifference in characteristics of a data object generated in one of theseways versus the other may be significant in understanding an occurrenceof a failure in a performance of a job flow. Alternatively oradditionally, in some embodiments, such indications of origins may beuseful during the automated generation of a new job flow that is to becapable of generating a specified output from a specified input. Morespecifically, indications that one or more data objects needed as inputare not able to be traced to having been generated as the output(s) ofearlier performance(s) of one or more job flows may be deemed useful inidentifying error condition(s) that may arise during such automatedgeneration of a new job flow.

However, and as will be familiar to those skilled in the art, asoriginally received by the one or more federated devices, the data setmay be in a form in which its data items are organized therein incomplex manner that does not entail the use of a single data structurethroughout (e.g., not a single two-dimensional array throughout).Alternatively or additionally, the data set may incorporate metadatawithin a particular portion thereof that specifies the manner in whichthe data items are organized therein (e.g., as a header at the head of adata file that specifies the type of data structure and/or indexingscheme used), and the manner of organization of the data items may besufficiently complex as to be prohibitively difficult to identifywithout reference to that metadata. If such a data set is then simplydivided up into blocks and distributed among the multiple storagedevices or multiple federated devices, it may be that different ones ofthe blocks are caused to include portions of different data structuresfrom within the data set such that the manner in which the data itemsare organized within the data blocks differs among the data blocks suchthat the manner in which data is accessed within each data block maydiffer among the data blocks. Alternatively or additionally, where thedata set incorporates metadata, it may be that just one of the blocksincludes the metadata, and that one block may then be distributed tojust one of the multiple storage devices or multiple federated devices,thereby depriving the others of the information needed to access and usethe data items within the blocks that are distributed to them. To makethe data items within the other blocks accessible to the storage devicesor federated devices within which they are stored, the metadata wouldhave to be transmitted to the other ones of the multiple storage devicesor multiple federated devices by the one storage device or federateddevice, respectively, that received the metadata within the block thatwas distributed to it.

To avoid such situations, prior to the storage of such a data set withina federated area, the one or more federated devices that receive thedata set may analyze the form of the data set upon its receipt todetermine whether or not the data items therein are already organized ina manner that is homogeneous throughout the data set such that it isalready in a distributable form in which it is amenable to being dividedinto blocks in which data items would be organized in an identicalmanner In some embodiments, the type of homogeneous organization of dataitems within the set may be additionally required to match one of whatmay be a set of preselected types of homogeneous organization that mayeach employ a particular bit-wise and/or byte-wise formatting (e.g., atabular format with a particular byte alignment), and/or a particularuse of particular delimiters (e.g., as text made up of comma-separatedvariables or CSV). If the data set does not include a distinct metadatadata structure, if the data items within the data set are organized in ahomogeneous manner, and/or if that manner of organization is of a typethat is among such a preselected set of types (in embodiments in whichsuch a requirement exists), then the one or more federated devices mayproceed to cooperate thereamong and/or with multiple storage devices todivide and store the data thereamong as multiple blocks in a distributedmanner.

However, if the data set does include a distinct metadata datastructure, or if the data items within the data set are not organizedtherein in a homogeneous manner, or if that manner of organization is ofa type that is not among such a preselected set of types (again, inembodiments in which such a requirement exists), then the one or morefederated devices that received the data set may convert the data setfrom the form in which it was received, and into a distributable formwhere there is no distinct metadata data structure, where the data itemsare organized therein in a homogeneous manner throughout, and where thathomogeneous manner of organization is one of such preselected types. Inso doing, where the original form of the data set includes a distinctmetadata data structure, the one or more federated devices may use thatmetadata as a guide in accessing the data items therein, whilegenerating a corresponding distributable form of the data set in whichthe same data items are organized in a homogeneous manner that, again,will enable the data items to be more readily accessible after thedistributable form of the data set has been divided into multipleblocks. Following such conversion, the one or more federated devices mayprovide the distributable form of the data set to a set of multiplestorage devices for being divided into blocks that are then distributedamong the multiple storage devices as part of effecting distributedstorage of the data set.

Also following such conversion, the one or more federated devices maystore an indication of various aspects of the storage of the data setfor future use in accessing it. More specifically, the one or morefederated devices may generate an object location identifier thatincludes indications of such aspects, including and not limited to,which federated area it is stored within, which federated device(s)and/or storage device(s) it is stored within, its size, the fact that itis stored in a distributed manner, and/or the fact that it is stored ina distributable form

Regardless of whether the data set was originally received already in adistributable form or was converted into a distributable form, with thedistributable form of the data set now stored in a distributed manner,the homogeneous manner of storage of the data items within each of theblocks distributed to one of the multiple storage devices or federateddevices enables an at least partially parallel performance of a job flowusing each of the blocks as an input thereto in a manner that does notentail exchanges of information among the multiple storage devices.Stated differently, the data items within each block is able to beaccessed and used locally within the device in which it is stored as anindependent input to one of the parallel independent performances of ajob flow within that device.

However, while such a large data set may be put through such conversionand then stored in such a distributed manner among the multiple storagedevices such that there is a portion of the data set that is locallyaccessible to each of multiple storage devices or multiple federateddevices, the other objects needed to perform a particular job flow maynot be stored in a way in which each of those multiple devices has suchlocal access to them. More precisely, the job flow definition and thetask routines also needed to perform the job flow may each be stored asan undivided object within just a single one of those devices and/orwithin just a single one of still other devices. It should be noted thatsuch objects as the job flow definition and each of the task routinesmay be expected to be of significantly smaller size than the data set(e.g., smaller than the predetermined threshold size) such that divisioninto blocks for storage is deemed unnecessary. As a result, it may bethat none or just one of those devices has local access to all of theobjects needed to perform the particular job flow.

To address this issue, the one or more federated devices that mayreceive a request to perform the particular job flow may retrieve eachof the other objects needed to perform the particular job flow fromwherever they may be stored, and may then distribute copies of thoseother objects to each one of the multiple devices in which a block ofthe data set is stored. In so doing, the one or more federated devicesmay assemble those other objects into a container, along with additionalexecutable instructions that enable the processor(s) of each of thosedevices in which one or more blocks of the data set are stored toperform the job flow using the block(s) of the data set that are storedtherein, including the execution of the task routines.

The performance of the job flow with the data set as an input may beexpected to result in the generation of another data object as anoutput, i.e., a result report. However, since the performance of the jobflow using the processing resources of those multiple devices is asmultiple at least partially parallel performances, the result report isnecessarily generated as multiple separate blocks that each correspondto one of the blocks of the data set. In some embodiments, it may be anormal procedure to store the result report in a federated area topreserve it for future analyses as part of the earlier described policyof maintaining accountability for the results of performing job flows.However, in other embodiments, there may be provided an ability for therequest to perform the particular job flow to include the ability tospecify which data objects are to be so preserved, and which are not.Thus, in such embodiments, where the result report has not beenspecified as a data object to be preserved, the one or more federateddevices that received the request to perform the particular job flow maydelete the blocks of the result report upon completion of theperformance of the particular job flow and/or upon determining that theresult report is not used as an input to any other task within the jobflow.

However, where the result report is meant to be preserved in a federatedarea (either by default as part of normal procedures or as a result ofbeing specified as a data object to be preserved), the one or morefederated devices may retrieve and assemble the blocks of the resultreport into a single undivided form of the result report, assign it aresult report identifier, and then cooperate with one or more storagedevices or federated devices to store it within a federated area. Wherethe result report, as assembled, is of a size that falls below thepredetermined threshold size, the result report may be deemed too smallto necessitate being stored in a distributed manner as the data set was,and therefore, may be stored as a undivided data object within a singlestorage device or federated device. However, if the assembled resultreport is of a size greater than the predetermined threshold size, thenthe result report may then be divided back into blocks and stored amongmultiple storage devices or multiple federated devices in a distributedmanner, just as the data set was. Additionally, the one or morefederated devices may store indications of various aspects of thestorage of the results report, including and not limited to, whichfederated area it is stored within, which federated device(s) and/orstorage device(s) it is stored within, its size, whether it is stored inan undivided manner or in a distributed manner, and/or whether it isstored in a distributable form (if it is stored in a distributedmanner).

In some embodiments, the one or more federated devices may support theexecution of a set of task routines written in differing programminglanguages as part of performing a job flow. As will be explained ingreater detail, this may arise where it is deemed desirable to supportcollaborations among developers who are familiar with differingprogramming languages, but who are each contributing different objects,including task routines, the development of a job flow. To enable this,the one or more federated devices may employ a multitude of runtimeinterpreters and/or compilers for a pre-selected set of multipleprogramming languages to execute such a set of task routines during theperformance of a job flow.

As will also be explained in greater detail, during the performance of ajob flow, there may instances of a task routine generating a data set asan output that is to then be used as an input to one or more other taskroutines (e.g., a mid-flow data set). That data may be persisted bybeing stored in a federated area as a new data object that is assigned aunique identifier just as a data object received from a source devicewould be. As previously discussed, this may be done as part of enablingaccountability concerning how an analysis is performed by preservingdata sets that are generated as an output by one task routine for use asan input to another. However, where two or more task routines thatexchange a data set thereamong are written in different programminglanguages, the data set so exchanged may be subjected to a conversionprocess to in some way change its form (e.g., serialization orde-serialization) to accommodate differences in data types and/orformats that are supported by the different programming languages (e.g.,to resolve differences in the manner in which arrays are organizedand/or accessed). Where such a conversion is performed, it may be thatjust one of the forms of the data set may be persisted to a federatedarea while the other form may be temporarily stored in a shared memoryspace that may be instantiated just for the duration of the performanceof the job flow and that may be un-instantiated at the end of thatperformance.

Some requests to perform a job flow may include a request to perform aspecified job flow of an analysis with one or more specified dataobjects. Other requests may be to repeat a past performance of a jobflow that begat a specified result report, or that entailed the use of aspecific combination of a job flow and one or more data sets as inputs.Still other requests may specify the performance of a set of tasks usinga set of data objects as inputs, but may not specify a job flow. Throughthe generation of identifiers for each of the various objects associatedwith each performance of a job flow, through the use of thoseidentifiers to refer to such objects in instance logs, and through theuse of those identifiers by the one or more federated devices inaccessing such objects, requests for performances of analyses are ableto more efficiently identify particular performances, their associatedobjects and/or related objects.

Regardless of the exact type of request received, each request may haveformatting, syntax and/or other characteristics selected to cause therequest to conform to one or more industry specifications forcommunications between devices. More specifically, the request may begenerated by the requesting device to have characteristics conforming toone or more of the versions of the Message-Passing Interface (MPI)specification promulgated by the MPI Forum, which is a cooperativeventure by numerous governmental, corporate and academic entities fromaround the world. Further, the manner in which the federated devicesand/or storage devices communicate to effect the requested performanceof the set of specified tasks may conform to one or more versions of theMPI specification, and/or the manner in which response(s) to the requestare transmitted back to the requesting device may do so.

In embodiments in which a request is received to perform a specified jobflow of an analysis with one or more specified data objects as inputs,the one or more federated devices may use the identifiers of thoseobjects that are provided in the request to analyze the instance logsstored in one or more federated areas to determine whether there was apast performance of the same job flow with the same one or more dataobjects as inputs. If there was such a past performance, then the resultreport generated as the output of that past performance may already bestored in a federated area. As long as none of the task routinesexecuted in the earlier performance have been updated since the earlierperformance, then a repeat performance of the same job flow with thesame one or more data objects serving as inputs may not be necessary.Thus, if any instance logs are found for such an earlier performance,the one or more federated devices may analyze the instance logassociated with the most recent earlier performance (if there has beenmore than one past performance) to obtain the identifiers uniquelyassigned to each of the task routines that were executed in that earlierperformance. The one or more federated devices may then analyze each ofthe uniquely identified task routines to determine whether each of themcontinues to be the most current version stored in the federated areafor use in performing its corresponding task. If so, then a repeatedperformance of the job flow with the one or more data objects identifiedin the request is not necessary, and the one or more federated devicesmay retrieve the result report generated by the past performance from afederated area and transmit that result report to the device from whichthe request was received.

However, if no instance logs are found for any past performance of thespecified job flow with the specified one or more data objects thatentailed the execution of the most current version of each of the taskroutines, then the one or more federated devices may perform thespecified job flow with the specified data objects using the mostcurrent version of task routine for each task specified with a flow taskidentifier in the job flow definition. Indeed, and as will be explainedin greater detail, it may be that the most current version of each taskroutine may be selected and used in performing a task by default, unlessa particular earlier version is actually specified to be used. The oneor more federated devices may then assign a unique identifier to andstore the new result report generated during such a performance in afederated area, as well as transmit the new result report to the devicefrom which the request was received. The one or more federated devicesmay also generate and store in a federated area a corresponding newinstance log that specifies details of the performance, including theidentifier of the job flow definition, the identifiers of all of themost current versions of task routines that were executed, theidentifiers of the one or more data objects used as inputs and/orgenerated as outputs, and the identifier of the new result report thatwas generated.

In embodiments in which a request is received to repeat a pastperformance of a job flow of an analysis that begat a result reportidentified in the request by its uniquely assigned identifier, the oneor more federated devices may analyze the instance logs stored in one ormore federated areas to retrieve the instance log associated with thepast performance that resulted in the generation of the identifiedresult report. The one or more federated devices may then analyze theretrieved instance log to obtain the identifiers for the job flowdefinition that defines the job flow, the identifiers for each of thetask routines executed in the past performance, and the identifiers ofany data objects used as inputs in the past performance Upon retrievingthe identified job flow definition, each of the identified taskroutines, and any identified data objects, the one or more federateddevices may then execute the retrieved task routines, using theretrieved data objects, and in the manner defined by the retrieved jobflow definition to repeat the past performance of the job flow withthose objects to generate a new result report. Since the request was torepeat an earlier performance of the job flow with the very sameobjects, the new result report should be identical to the earlier resultreport generated in the past performance such that the new result reportshould be a regeneration of the earlier result report. The one or morefederated devices may then assign an identifier to and store the newresult report in a federated area, as well as transmit the new resultreport to the device from which the request was received. The one ormore federated devices may also generate and store, in a federated area,a corresponding new instance log that specifies details of the newperformance of the job flow, including the identifier of the job flowdefinition, the identifiers of all of the task routines that wereexecuted, the identifiers of the one or more data objects used as inputsand/or generated as outputs, and the identifier of the new resultreport.

In embodiments in which one or more federated devices may receive arequest to perform a set of tasks specified in the request using one ormore data objects also specified in the request as input(s) thereto, andwithout specifying a job flow definition that would define an order inwhich the set of tasks is to be performed, the one or more federateddevices may analyze the specification of data objects as input(s) and/oroutput(s) of each task, and/or may analyze the definition of inputand/or output interface(s) of each task, to identify dependenciesthereamong, and to thereby identify opportunities for at least partiallyparallel performances thereamong. Where the request includes or isaccompanied by one or more of the specified data objects, the one ormore federated devices may store each such data object in a federatedarea prior to commencing performance of the one(s) of the specifiedtasks that require such data as input.

In some embodiments, a request for a performance of a job flow (whetherit is a request to repeat a past performance, or not) may specify thatthe input/output behavior of the task routines used during theperformance be verified. More specifically, it may be requested that theinput/output behavior of the task routines that are executed during theperformance of a job flow be monitored, and that the observedinput/output behavior of each of those task routines with regard toaccessing data objects and/or engaging in any other exchange of inputsand/or outputs be compared to the input and/or output interfaces thatmay be implemented by their executable instructions, that may bespecified in any comments therein, and/or that may be specified in thejob flow definition of the job flow that is performed. Each task routinethat exhibits input/output behavior that remains compliant with suchspecifications during its execution may be in some way marked and/orrecorded as having verified input/output behavior. Each task routinethat exhibits input/output behavior that goes beyond such specificationsmay be in some way marked and/or recorded as having aberrantinput/output behavior.

To perform such monitoring of the input/output behavior of taskroutines, each task routine that is executed during the performance of aparticular job flow may be so executed within a container environmentinstantiated within available storage space by a processor of one of thefederated devices. More specifically, such a container environment maybe defined to limit accesses that may be made to other storage spacesoutside the container environment and/or to input and/or output devicesof the federated device. In effect, such a container environment may begiven a set of access rules by which input/output behaviors that complywith input/output behaviors that are expected of particular task routineare allowed to proceed, while other input/output behaviors that gobeyond the expected input/output behaviors may be blocked while thestorage locations that were meant to be accessed by those aberrantinput/output behaviors are recorded to enable accountability for suchmisbehavior by a task routine, and/or to serve as information that maybe required by a programmer to correct a portion of the executableinstructions within such a task routine to correct its input/outputbehavior.

By way of example, and still more specifically, such comments within atask routine and/or such specifications within a job flow definition mayspecify various aspects of its inputs and/or outputs, such data type,indexing scheme, etc. of data object(s), but may refrain from specifyingany particular data object as part of an approach to allowing particulardata object(s) to be specified by a job flow definition, or in any of avariety of other ways, during the performance of the job flow in whichthe task routine may be executed and/or that is defined by the job flowdefinition. Instead, a placeholder designator (e.g., a variable) may bespecified that is to be given a value indicative of a specific dataobject during the performance of a job flow. Alternatively, where one ormore particular data objects are specified, such specification of one ormore particular data objects may be done as a default to address asituation in which one or more particular data objects are not specifiedby a job flow definition and/or in another way during performance of ajob flow in which the task routine may be executed. Regardless ofwhether particular data objects are specified, following the retrievaland interpretation of such input/output specifications, a containerenvironment may be instantiated that is configured to enable the taskroutine to be executed therein and that allows the task routine toengage in input/output behavior that conforms to those input/outputspecifications, but which does not allow the task routine to engage inaberrant input/output behavior that goes beyond what it is expectedbased on those input/output specifications. Depending on theinput/output behavior that is observed as the task routine is soexecuted, the task routine may be marked as being verified as engagingin correct input/output behavior or may be marked as being observedengaging in aberrant input/output behavior.

In some embodiments, the marking of the results of such monitoring ofinput/output behavior of each task routine may be incorporated into taskroutine database(s) that may be used to organize the storage of taskroutines within one or more federated areas as part of enabling moreefficient selection and retrieval of task routines for provision to arequesting device and/or for execution. In some of such embodiments,such marking of task routines may also play a role in which taskroutines are selected to be provided to a requesting device and/or to beexecuted as part of performing a job flow. As an alternative to suchmarking of such input/output behavior of a task routine being maintainedby a task routine database, a separate and distinct data structure maybe maintained within the federated area in which the task routine isstored as a repository of indications of such input/output behavior bythe task routine and/or by multiple task routines (e.g., a data file ofsuch indications). Alternatively or additionally, and regardless of theexact manner in which such indications of such input/output behavior ofa task routine may be stored, in some embodiments, such storedindications of either correct or aberrant input/output behavior of atask routine may be reflected in instance logs from performances of jobflows in which the task routine was executed and/or in a visualrepresentation of the task routine in a DAG.

In various embodiments, a job flow definition may be augmented withgraphical user interface (GUI) instructions that are to be executedduring a performance of the job flow that it defines to provide a GUIthat provides a user an opportunity to specify one or more aspects ofthe performance of the job flow at runtime. By way of example, such aGUI may provide a user with an opportunity to select one or more dataobjects to be used as inputs to that performance, to select which one ofmultiple versions of a task routine is to be used to perform a task,and/or select a federated area into which to store a result report to beoutput by that performance. In so doing, the GUI may includeinstructions to display lists of objects, characteristics of objects,DAGs of objects, etc. in response to specific inputs received from auser.

In some of such embodiments, the source device that provides such anaugmented job flow definition to the one or more federated devices forstorage may enable a user to author such GUI instructions through use ofa sketch input user interface. More specifically, such a source devicemay support the entry of GUI instructions as graphical symbols sketchedby a user of the source device through a touchscreen user interfacedevice that supports sketch input and a stylus. Such a source device maymaintain a library of graphical symbols that are each correlated to aparticular type of object, to a particular characteristic of an objectand/or to the displaying of particular information in connection to aparticular type of object. Alternatively or additionally, such a librarymay include graphical symbols that are correlated to particular types ofuser input that is to be awaited and/or to particular types of actionsto be taken in response to the receipt of particular types of userinput. One or more of such graphical symbols may include human readabletext that may be employed to specify distinct pages of a GUI and/or tospecify particular objects. Such a source device may interpret thegraphical symbols, any text incorporated therein, and/or the manner inwhich those graphical symbols are arranged relative to each other in thesketch input to derive and generate the GUI instructions with which ajob flow definition is to be augmented.

In support enabling the objects stored within one or more federatedareas to be used in performances of job flows, and/or in support ofenabling accountability in analyzing aspects of a past performance of ajob flow, a set of rules may be enforced by the one or more federateddevices that limit what actions may be taken in connection with eachobject. Such enforced limitations in access to each object may be inaddition to the aforementioned restrictions on accesses to federatedarea(s) that may be imposed on entities, persons and/or particulardevices. Such rules may restrict what objects are permitted to be storedand/or when, and/or may restrict what objects are able to be alteredand/or removed as part of preventing instances of there being “orphan”objects that are not accompanied in storage by other objects that may beneeded to support a performance or a repetition of a performance of ajob flow. Alternatively or additionally, such rules may restrict whatobjects are permitted to be stored and/or when as part of preventinstances of incompatibility between objects that are to be usedtogether in a performance of a job flow.

By way of example, whether a job flow definition will be permitted to bestored within a federated area may be made contingent on whether, foreach task that is specified in the job flow definition, there is atleast one task routine that is already stored in the federated areaand/or is about to be stored in the federated area along with the jobflow definition. Such a rule that imposes such a condition on thestorage of a job flow definition may be deemed desirable to prevent asituation in which there is a job flow definition stored in a federatedarea that defines a job flow that cannot be performed as a result ofthere being a task specified therein that cannot be performed due to thelack of storage in a federated area of any task routine that can beexecuted to perform that task. Similarly, and by way of another example,whether an instance log will be permitted to be stored within afederated area may be made contingent on whether each object identifiedin the instance log as being associated with a past performance of thejob flow documented by the instance log is already stored in thefederated area and/or is about to be stored in the federated area alongwith the instance log. Such a rule that imposes such a condition on thestorage of an instance log may be deemed desirable to prevent asituation in which there is an instance log stored in a federated areathat documents a past performance of a job flow that cannot be repeateddue to the lack of storage in a federated area of an object specified inthe instance log as being associated with that past performance.

By way of another example, whether a job flow definition will bepermitted to be stored within a federated area may alternatively oradditionally be made contingent on whether, the input and/or outputinterfaces specified for each task in the job flow definition are asufficient match to the input and/or output definitions implemented bythe already stored task routines that perform each of those tasks. Sucha rule that imposes such a condition on the storage of a job flowdefinition may be deemed desirable to prevent incompatibilities betweenthe specifications of interfaces in a job flow definition and theimplementations of interfaces in the corresponding task routines.Similarly, and by way of still another example, whether a new version ofa task routine that performs a particular task when executed will bepermitted to be stored within a federated area may be made contingent onwhether, the input and/or output definitions implemented within the newtask routine are a sufficient match to the input and/or outputdefinitions implemented by the one or more already stored task routinesthat also perform the same task. Such a rule that imposes such acondition on the storage of a new task routine may be deemed desirableto prevent incompatibilities between versions of task routines thatperform the same task.

By way of still another example, whether a data object (e.g., flow inputdata set, a mid-flow data set, or result report) or a task routine ispermitted to be deleted from a federated area may be made contingent onwhether its removal would prevent a job flow that is defined in a jobflow definition from being performed and/or whether its removal wouldprevent a past performance of a job flow that is documented by ainstance log from being repeated. Such a rule that imposes such acondition may be deemed desirable to prevent a situation in which thereis a job flow definition stored in a federated area that defines a jobflow that cannot be performed due to the lack of storage in a federatedarea of any task routine that can be executed to perform one of thetasks specified in the job flow definition. Also, such a rule thatimposes such a condition may be deemed desirable to prevent a situationin which there is an instance log stored in a federated area thatdocuments a past performance of a job flow that cannot be repeated dueto the lack of storage in a federated area of a data object or taskroutine specified in the instance log as being associated with that pastperformance. Similarly, and by way of yet another example, whether a jobflow definition is permitted to be deleted from a federated area may bemade contingent on whether its removal would prevent a past performanceof the corresponding job flow that is documented by a instance log frombeing repeated. Such a rule that imposes such a condition may be deemeddesirable to prevent a situation in which there is an instance logstored in a federated area that documents a past performance of a jobflow that cannot be repeated due to the lack of storage in a federatedarea of the job flow definition for that job flow.

With such restrictions against the removal of objects from a federatedarea, an alternative that may be allowed by the set of rules may be thestoring of newer versions of objects. By way of example, where anearlier version of a task routine or a job flow definition is determinedto have flaws and/or to be in need of replacement for some other reason,the set of rules may allow a newer (and presumably improved) version ofsuch a task routine or job flow definition to be stored so that it canbe used instead of the earlier version. As previously discussed, whileeach version of each task routine may be assigned a unique identifiergenerated from the taking of a hash of thereof such that each version ofeach task routine is individually identifiable and selectable, each taskroutine is also assigned a flow task identifier that specifies the taskthat it performs when executed. As previously discussed, task routinesmay subsequently be searched for and selected based on their flow taskidentifiers, and use of the most current version of task routine toperform each task specified in a job flow by a flow task identifier maybe the default rule. As a result, the storage of a new version of a taskroutine that performs a task identified by a particular flow taskidentifier may be relied upon to cause the use of any earlier versionsof task routine that also perform that same task identified by that sameflow task identifier to cease, except in situations where the use of aparticular earlier version of task routine to perform a particular taskis actually specified.

Through such pooling of older and newer versions of objects, through theprovision of unique identifiers for each object, and through theenforcement of such a regime of rules restricting accesses that may bemade to one or more federated areas, objects such as data sets, taskroutines and job flow definitions are made readily available for reuseunder conditions in which their ongoing integrity against inadvertentand/or deliberate alteration is assured. The provision of a flow taskidentifier for each task may enable updated versions of task routines tobe independently created and stored within one or more federated areasin a manner that associates those updated versions with earlier versionswithout concern of accidental overwriting of earlier versions.

As a result of such pooling of data sets and task routines, new analysesmay be more speedily created through reuse thereof by generating new jobflows that identify already stored data sets and/or task routines.Additionally, where a task routine is subsequently updated, advantagemay be automatically taken of that updated version in subsequentperformances of each job flow that previously used the earlier versionof that task routine. And yet, the earlier version of that task routineremains available to enable a comparative analysis of the resultsgenerated by the different versions if discrepancies therebetween aresubsequently discovered. Also, as a result of such pooling of data sets,task routines and job flows, along with instance logs and resultreports, repeated performances of a particular job flow with aparticular data set can be avoided. Through use of identifiers uniquelyassociated with each object and recorded within each instance log,situations in which a requested performance of a particular job flowwith a particular data set that has been previously performed can bemore efficiently identified, and the result report generated by thatprevious performance can be more efficiently retrieved and madeavailable in lieu of consuming time and processing resources to repeatthat previous performance And yet, if a question should arise as to thevalidity of the results of that previous performance, the data set(s),task routines and job flow definition on which that previous performancewas based remain readily accessible for additional analysis to resolvethat question.

Also, where there is no previous performance of a particular job flowwith a particular data set such that there is no previously generatedresult report and/or instance log therefor, the processing resources ofthe grid of federated devices may be utilized to perform the particularjob flow with the particular data set. The ready availability of theparticular data set to the grid of federated devices enables such aperformance without the consumption of time and network bandwidthresources that would be required to transmit the particular data set andother objects to the requesting device to enable a performance by therequesting device. Instead, the transmissions to the requesting devicemay be limited to the result report generated by the performance. Also,advantage may be taken of the grid of federated devices to cause theperformance of one or more of the tasks of the job flow as multipleinstances thereof in a distributed manner (e.g., at least partially inparallel) among multiple federated devices and/or among multiple threadsof execution support by processor(s) within each such federated device.

As a result of the requirement that the data set(s), task routines andthe job flow associated with each instance log be preserved,accountability for the validity of results of past performances of jobflows with particular data sets is maintained. The sources of incorrectresults, whether from invalid data, or from errors made in the creationof a task routine or a job flow, may be traced and identified. By way ofexample, an earlier performance of a particular job flow with aparticular data set using earlier versions of task routines can becompared to a later performance of the same job flow with the same dataset, but using newer versions of the same task routines, as part of ananalysis to identify a possible error in a task routine. As a result,mistakes can be corrected and/or instances of malfeasance can beidentified and addressed.

The one or more federated devices may maintain one or more sets offederated areas that may be related to each other through a set ofrelationships that serve to define a hierarchy of federated areas inwhich the different federated areas may be differentiated by the degreeof restriction of access thereto that may be enforced by the one or morefederated devices. In some embodiments, a linear hierarchy may bedefined in which there is a base federated area with the leastrestricted degree of access, a private federated area with the mostrestricted degree of access, and/or one or more intervening federatedareas with intermediate degrees of access restriction interposed betweenthe base and private federated areas. Such a hierarchy of federatedareas may be created to address any of a variety of situations insupport of any of a variety of activities, including those in whichdifferent objects stored thereamong require different degrees of accessrestriction. By way of example, while a new data set or a new taskroutine is being developed, it may be deemed desirable to maintain itwithin the private federated area or intervening federated area to whichaccess is granted to a relatively small number of users (e.g., personsand/or other entities that may each be associated with one or moresource devices and/or reviewing devices) that are directly involved inthe development effort. It may be deemed undesirable to have such a newdata set or task routine made accessible to others beyond the usersinvolved in such development before such development is completed, suchthat various forms of testing and/or quality assurance have beenperformed. Upon completion of such a new data set or task routine, itmay then be deemed desirable to transfer it, or a copy thereof, to thebase federated area or other intervening federated area to which accessis granted to a larger number of users. Such a larger number of usersmay be the intended users of such a new data set or task routine.

It may be that multiple ones of such linear hierarchical sets offederated areas may be combined to form a tree of federated areas with asingle base federated area with the least restricted degree of access atthe root of the tree, and multiple private federated areas as the leavesof the tree that each have more restricted degrees of access. Such atree may additionally include one or more intervening federated areaswith various intermediate degrees of access restriction to define atleast some of the branching of hierarchies of federated areas within thetree. Such a tree of federated areas may be created to address any of avariety of situations in support of any of a variety of larger and/ormore complex activities, including those in which different users thateach require access to different objects at different times are engagedin some form of collaboration. By way of example, multiple users may beinvolved in the development of a new task routine, and each such usermay have a different role to play in such a development effort. Whilethe new task routine is still being architected and/or generated, it maybe deemed desirable to maintain it within a first private federated areaor intervening federated area to which access is granted to a relativelysmall number of users that are directly involved in that effort. Uponcompletion of such an architecting and/or generation process, the newtask routine, or a copy thereof, may be transferred to a second privatefederated area or intervening federated area to which access is grantedto a different relatively small number of users that may be involved inperforming tests and/or other quality analysis procedures on the newtask routine to evaluate its fitness for release for use. Uponcompletion of such testing and/or quality analysis, the new taskroutine, or a copy thereof, may be transferred to a third privatefederated area or intervening federated area to which access is grantedto yet another relatively small number of users that may be involved inpre-release experimental use of the new task routine to further verifyits functionality in actual use case scenarios. Upon completion of suchexperimental use, the new task routine, or a copy thereof, may betransferred to a base federated area or other intervening federated areato which access is granted to a larger number of users that may be theintended users of the new task routine.

In embodiments in which multiple federated areas form a tree offederated areas, each user may be automatically granted their ownprivate federated area as part of being granted access to at least aportion of the tree. Such an automated provision of a private federatedarea may improve the ease of use, for each such user, of at least thebase federated area by providing a private storage area in which aprivate set of job flow definitions, task routines, data sets and/orother objects may be maintained to assist that user in the developmentand/or analysis of other objects that may be stored in at least the basefederated area. By way of example, a developer of task routines maymaintain a private set of job flow definitions, task routines and/ordata sets in their private federated area for use as tools indeveloping, characterizing and/or testing the task routines that theydevelop. The one or more federated devices may be caused, by such adeveloper, to use such job flow definitions, task routines and/or datasets to perform compilations, characterizing and/or testing of such newtask routines within the private federated area as part of thedevelopment process therefor. Some of such private job flow definitions,task routines and/or data sets may include and/or may be importantpieces of intellectual property that such a developer desires to keep tothemselves for their own exclusive use (e.g., treated as trade secretsand/or other forms of confidential information).

A base federated area within a linear hierarchy or hierarchical tree offederated areas may be the one federated area therein with the leastrestrictive degree of access such that a grant of access to the basefederated area constitutes the lowest available level of access that canbe granted to any user. Stated differently, the base federated area mayserve as the most “open” or most “public” space within a linearhierarchy or hierarchical tree of federated spaces. Thus, the basefederated area may serve as the storage space at which may be stored jobflow definitions, versions of task routines, data sets, result reportsand/or instance logs that are meant to be available to all users thathave been granted any degree of access to the set of federated areas ofwhich the base federated area is a part. The one or more federateddevices may be caused, by a user that has been granted access to atleast the base federated area, to perform a job flow within the basefederated area using a job flow definition, task routines and/or datasets stored within the base federated area.

In a linear hierarchical set of federated areas that includes a basefederated area and just a single private federated area, one or moreintervening federated areas may be interposed therebetween to supportthe provision of different levels of access to other users that don'thave access to the private federated area, but are meant to be givenaccess to more than what is stored in the base federated area. Such aprovision of differing levels of access would entail providing differentusers with access to either just the base federated area, or to one ormore intervening federated areas. Of course, this presumes that eachuser having any degree of access to the set of federated areas is notautomatically provided with their own private federated area, as theresulting set of federated areas would then define a tree that includesmultiple private federated areas, and not a linear hierarchy thatincludes just a single private federated area.

In a hierarchical tree of federated areas that includes a base federatedarea at the root and multiple private federated areas at the leaves ofthe tree, one or more intervening federated areas may be interposedbetween one or more of the private federated areas and the basefederated areas in a manner that defines at least part of one or morebranches of the tree. Through such branching, different privatefederated areas and/or different sets of private federated areas may belinked to the base federated area through different interveningfederated areas and/or different sets of intervening federated areas. Inthis way, users associated with some private federated areas within onebranch may be provided with access to one or more intervening federatedareas within that branch that allow sharing of objects thereamong, whilealso excluding other users associated with other private federated areasthat may be within one or more other branches. Stated differently,branching may be used to create separate sets of private federated areaswhere each such set of private federated areas is associated with agroup of users that have agreed to more closely share objectsthereamong, while all users within all of such groups are able to shareobjects through the base federated area, if they so choose.

In embodiments in which there are multiple federated areas that formeither a single linear hierarchy or a hierarchical tree, each of thefederated areas may be assigned one or more identifiers. It may be thateach federated area is assigned a human-readable identifier, such asnames that are descriptive of ownership (e.g., “Franks”), names that aredescriptive of degree of access (e.g., “public” vs. “private”), names offile system directories and/or sub-directories at which each of thefederated areas may be located, and/or names of network identifiers bywhich each federated area may be accessible on a network. However, itmay be that each federated area is also assigned a randomly generatedidentifier with a large enough bit width that it is highly likely thateach such identifier is unique across all federated areas anywhere inthe world (e.g., a “global” identifier or “GUID”). Such a uniqueidentifier for each federated area may provide a mechanism to resolveidentification conflicts where perhaps two or more federated areas mayhave been given identical human-readable identifiers.

In one example of assignment and use of identifiers, a set of federatedareas that form either a single linear hierarchy or hierarchical treemay be assigned identifiers that make the linear hierarchy orhierarchical tree navigable through the use of typical web browsingsoftware. More specifically, one or more federated devices may generatethe portal to enable access, by a remote device, to the set of federatedareas from across a network using web access protocols, file transferprotocols and/or other protocols in which each of multiple federatedareas is provided with a human-readable identifier in the form of auniform resource locator (URL). In so doing, the URLs assigned theretomay be structured to reflect the hierarchy that has been defined amongthe federated areas therein. Thus, for a tree of federated areas, thebase federated area at the root of the tree may be assigned the shortestand simplest URL, and such a URL given to the base federated area may beindicative of a name given to that entire tree of federated areas. Incontrast, the URL of each federated area at a leaf of the tree mayinclude a combination (e.g., a concatenation) of at least a portion ofthe URL given to the base federated area, and at least a portion of theURL given to any intervening federated area in the path between thefederated area at the leaf and the base federated area.

In embodiments of either a linear hierarchy of federated areas or ahierarchical tree of federated areas, one or more relationships thataffect the manner in which objects may be accessed and/or used may beput in place between each private federated area and the base federatedarea, as well as through any intervening federated areas therebetween.Among such relationships may be an inheritance relationship in which,from the perspective of a private federate area, objects stored withinthe base federated area, or within any intervening federated areatherebetween, may be treated as if they are also stored directly withinthe private federated area for purposes of being available for use inperforming a job flow within the private federated area. As will beexplained in greater detail, the provision of such an inheritancerelationship may aid in enabling and/or encouraging the reuse of objectsby multiple users by eliminating the need to distribute multiple copiesof an object among multiple private federated areas in which that objectmay be needed for performances of job flows within each of those privatefederated areas. Instead, a single copy of such an object may be storedwithin the base federated area and will be treated as being just asreadily available for use in performances of job flows within each ofsuch private federated areas.

Also among such relationships may be a priority relationship in which,from the perspective of a private federated area, the use of a versionof an object stored within the private federated area may be givenpriority over the use of another version of the same object storedwithin the base federated area, or within any intervening federated areatherebetween. More specifically, where a job flow is to be performedwithin a private federated area, and there is one version of a taskroutine to perform a task of the job flow stored within the privatefederated area and another version of the task routine to perform thesame task stored within the base federated area, use of the version ofthe task routine stored within the private federated area may be givenpriority over use of the other version stored within the base federatedarea. Further, such priority may be given to using the version storedwithin the private federated area regardless of whether the otherversion stored in the base federated area is a newer version. Stateddifferently, as part of performing the job flow within the privatefederated area, the one or more federated devices may first searchwithin the private federated area for any needed task routines toperform each of the tasks specified in the job flow, and upon finding atask routine to perform a task within the private federated area, nosearch may be performed of any other federated area to find a taskroutine to perform that same task. It may be deemed desirable toimplement such a priority relationship as a mechanism to allow a userassociated with the private federated area to choose to override theautomatic use of a version of a task routine within the base federatedarea (or an intervening federated area therebetween) due to aninheritance relationship by storing the version of the task routine thatthey prefer to use within the private federated area.

Also among such relationships may be a dependency relationship in which,from the perspective of a private federated area, some objects storedwithin the private federated area may have dependencies on objectsstored within the base federated area, or within an interveningfederated area therebetween. More specifically, as earlier discussed,the one or more federated devices may impose a rule that the taskroutines upon which a job flow depends may not be deleted such that theone or more federated devices may deny a request received from a remotedevice to delete a task routine that performs a task identified by aflow task identifier that is referred to by at least one job flowdefinition stored. Thus, where the private federated area stores a jobflow definition that includes a flow task identifier specifying aparticular task to be done, and the base federated area stores a taskroutine that performs that particular task, the job flow of the job flowdefinition may have a dependency on that task routine continuing to beavailable for use in performing the task through an inheritancerelationship between the private federated area and the base federatedarea. In such a situation, the one or more federated devices may deny arequest that may be received from a remote device to delete that taskroutine from the base federated area, at least as long as the job flowdefinition continues to be stored within the private federated area.However, if that job flow definition is deleted from the privatefederated area, and if there is no other job flow definition that refersto the same task flow identifier, then the one or more federated devicesmay permit the deletion of that task routine from the base federatedarea.

In embodiments in which there is a hierarchical tree of federated areasthat includes at least two branches, a relationship may be put in placebetween two private and/or intervening federated areas that are eachwithin a different one of two branches by which one or more objects maybe automatically transferred therebetween by the one or more federateddevices in response to one or more conditions being met. As previouslydiscussed, the formation of branches within a tree may be indicative ofthe separation of groups of users where there may be sharing of objectsamong users within each such group, such as through the use of one ormore intervening federated areas within a branch of the tree, but notsharing of objects between such groups. However, there may be occasionsin which there is a need to enable a relatively limited degree ofsharing of objects between federated areas within different branches.Such an occasion may be an instance of multiple groups of users choosingto collaborate on the development of one or more particular objects suchthat those particular one or more objects are to be shared among themultiple groups where, otherwise, objects would not normally be sharedtherebetween. On such an occasion, the one or more federated devices maybe requested to instantiate a transfer area through which thoseparticular one or more objects may be automatically transferredtherebetween upon one or more specified conditions being met. In someembodiments, the transfer area may be formed as an overlap between twofederated areas of two different branches of a hierarchical tree. Inother embodiments, the transfer area may be formed within the basefederated area to which users associated with federated areas withindifferent branches may all have access.

In some embodiments, the determination of whether the condition(s) for atransfer have been met and/or the performance of the transfer of one ormore particular objects may be performed using one or more transferroutines to perform transfer-related tasks called for within a transferflow definition. In such embodiments, a transfer routine may be storedwithin each of the two federated areas between which the transfer is tooccur. Within the federated area that the particular one or more objectsare to be transferred from, the one or more federated devices may becaused by the transfer routine stored therein to repeatedly checkwhether the specified condition(s) have been met, and if so, to thentransfer copies of the particular one or more objects into the transferarea. Within the federated area that the particular one or more objectsare to be transferred to, the one or more federated devices may becaused by the transfer routine stored therein to repeatedly checkwhether copies of the particular one or more objects have beentransferred into the transfer area, and if so, to then retrieve thecopies of the particular one or more objects from the transfer area.

A condition that triggers such automated transfers may be any of avariety of conditions that may eventually be met through one or moreperformances of a job flow within the federated area from which one ormore objects are to be so transferred. More specifically, the conditionmay be the successful generation of particular results data that mayinclude a data set that meets one or more requirements that arespecified as the condition. Alternatively, the condition may be thesuccessful generation and/or testing of a new task routine such thatthere is confirmation in a result report or in the generation of one ormore particular data sets that the new task routine has beensuccessfully verified as meeting one or more requirements that arespecified as the condition. As will be explained in greater detail, theone or more performances of a job flow that may produce an output thatcauses the condition to be met may occur within one or more processesthat may be separate from the process in which a transfer routine isexecuted to repeatedly check whether the condition has been met. Also,each of such processes may be performed on a different thread ofexecution of a processor of a federated device, or each of suchprocesses may be performed on a different thread of execution of adifferent processor from among multiple processors of either a singlefederated device or multiple federated devices.

By way of example, multiple users may be involved in the development ofa new neural network or a new ensemble of neural networks (e.g., a chainof neural networks), and each such user may have a different role toplay in such a development effort. While the new neural network orneural network ensemble is being developed through a training process,it may be deemed desirable to maintain the data set(s) of weights andbiases that is being generated through numerous iterations of trainingwithin a first intervening federated area to which access is granted toa relatively small number of users that are directly involved in thattraining effort. Upon completion of such training, a copy of theresulting one or more data sets of weights and biases may be transferredto a second intervening federated area to which access is granted to adifferent relatively small number of users that may be involved intesting the neural network or neural network ensemble defined by thedata set(s) to evaluate fitness for release for at least experimentaluse. The transfer of the copy of one or more data set(s) from the firstintervening federated area to the second intervening federated area maybe triggered by the training having reached a stage at which apredetermined condition is met that defines the completion of training,such as a quantity of iterations of training having been performed. Uponcompletion of such testing of the neural network or neural networkensemble, a copy of the one or more data sets of weights and biases maybe transferred from the second intervening federated area to a thirdintervening federated area to which access is granted to yet anotherrelatively small number of users that may be involved in pre-releaseexperimental use of the neural network or neural network ensemble tofurther verify functionality in actual use case scenarios. Like thetransfer to the second intervening federated area, the transfer of acopy of the one or more data sets from the second intervening federatedarea to the third intervening federated area may be triggered by thetesting having reached a stage at which a predetermined condition wasmet that defines the completion of testing, such as a threshold of acharacteristic of performance of the neural network or neural networkensemble having been determined to have been met during testing. Uponcompletion of such experimental use, a copy of the one or more data setsof weights and biases may be transferred from the third federated areato a base federated area to which access is granted to a larger numberof users that may be the intended users of the new neural network.

Such a neural network or neural network ensemble may be generated aspart of an effort to transition from performing a particular analyticalfunction using non-neuromorphic processing (i.e., processing in which noneural network is used) to performing the same analytical function usingneuromorphic processing (i.e., processing in which one or more neuralnetworks are used). Such a transition may represent a tradeoff inaccuracy for speed, as the performance of the analytical function usingneuromorphic processing may not achieve the perfect accuracy (or atleast the degree of accuracy) that is possible via the performance ofthe analytical function using non-neuromorphic processing, but theperformance of the analytical function using neuromorphic processing maybe faster by one or more orders of magnitude, depending on whether theneural network or neural network ensemble is implemented withsoftware-based simulations of artificial neurons executed by one or moreCPUs or GPUs, or hardware-based implementations of artificial neuronsprovided by one or more neuromorphic devices.

Where the testing of such a neural network or neural network ensembleprogresses successfully such that it begins to be put to actual use,there may be a gradual transition from the testing to the usage that maybe automatically implemented in a staged manner Initially,non-neuromorphic and neuromorphic implementations of the analyticalfunction may be performed at least partially in parallel with the sameinput data values being provided to both, and with the correspondingoutput data values of each being compared to test the degree of accuracyof the neural network or neural network ensemble in performing theanalytical function. In such initial, at least partially parallel,performances, priority may be given to providing processing resources tothe non-neuromorphic implementation, since the non-neuromorphicimplementation is still the one that is in use. As the neural network orneural network ensemble demonstrates a degree of accuracy that at leastmeets a predetermined threshold, the testing may change such that theneuromorphic implementation is used, and priority is given to providingprocessing resources to it, while the non-neuromorphic implementation isused at least partially in parallel solely to provide output data valuesfor further comparisons to corresponding ones provided by theneuromorphic implementation. Presuming that the neural network or neuralnetwork ensemble continues to demonstrate a degree of accuracy thatmeets or exceeds the predetermined threshold, further use of thenon-neuromorphic implementation of the analytical function may cease,entirely.

In various embodiments, a somewhat similar temporary relationship may beinstantiated between one or more selected federated areas and a storagespace that is entirely external to the one or more federated devicesand/or to the one or more federated areas, such as an external storagespace maintained by a source device or a reviewing device. The federatedarea(s) selected for such a relationship may, again, include privatefederated area(s) and/or other federated area(s) used to store one ormore objects that may be under development and/or associated with ananalysis routine that may be under development. The purpose of such arelationship may be to cause the automatic synchronization of changesmade to objects stored within each of the selected federated area(s) andthe external storage space, as previously discussed. In some of suchembodiments, automatic synchronization may be effected simply bytransferring a copy of an object modified within a transfer area withina federated to a corresponding transfer area within the external storagespace and vice versa such that both transfer areas are caused to haveidentical objects.

As with the aforedescribed automatic transfers between transfer areasdefined within federated areas, any of a variety of conditions may bespecified as the trigger for causing such automated transfers, such asthe aforementioned examples of the successful completion of testing ofan object (e.g., a task routine) and/or of a neural network (or anensemble of neural networks) as a trigger. As an alternate example, thetrigger may be an instance in which an object is in someway marked orotherwise indicated as having been completed to a degree that adeveloper working in one of these development environments desires tomake it available to the other developers working in the other of thesedevelopment environments. Such marking may be associated with a processin which an object and/or changes thereto are “committed” to a pool ofother objects stored within a transfer area that have also been deemedand marked as similarly complete. Thus, upon an object having been somarked in one transfer area, the one or more federated devices may causea copy thereof to be transferred to other transfer area with which theone transfer area is synchronized and to be similarly marked such thatthe fact of that object (or changes made thereto) having been“committed” is made evident at both transfer areas.

It should be noted that, unlike the one or more federated areasmaintained by the one or more federated devices with the aforementionedset of rules that enforce conditions on when objects may be storedwithin federated area(s) and/or removed therefrom, there may be no suchset of rules that are employed to provide similar restrictions for suchan external storage space. Thus, synchronization between one or moreselected federated areas and such an external storage space maynecessitate providing the ability to at least temporarily suspend theenforcement of such rules for the one or more selected federated areas,at least where new objects and/or changes to objects are effected by theoccurrence of transfers from the external storage space and to one ofthe one or more selected federated areas. It may be that the formationof such a relationship between each of the one or more selectedfederated areas and an external storage space is limited to privatefederated area(s) so as to avoid having a federated area in which thereis such a suspension of rules that also becomes a federated area fromwhich other federated areas may inherit objects. Alternatively oradditionally, it may be that a portion of each of the one or moreselected federated areas is designated as a transfer area that becomesthe portion thereof in which the contents therein are kept synchronizedwith a corresponding transfer area within the external storage space.

In such example embodiments as are described above in which a selectedfederated area and the external storage space are both employed asshared storage spaces to enable the collaborative development of objectsamong multiple developers, such transfers to synchronize the conditionsof objects therebetween may be performed bi-directionally such thatchanges to objects made within either location are reflected in thecorresponding objects within the other location. As will be explained ingreater detail, in embodiments in which such a collaboration is intendedto result in the generation of a full set of objects needed to perform ajob flow within the one or more federated areas, it may be that thereare limits imposed on the bi-directionality of the exchanges such that,for example, job flow definitions may be exchanged bi-directionally, butnot task routines. This may be the case where the developers who accessthe external storage space, but not the one or more federated areas, maybe generating task routines and/or job flow definitions in a differentprogramming language from the developers who access the one or morefederated areas. Thus, in such a collaboration, task routines that maybe accepted from the external storage space through such asynchronization relationship, but no task routines developed within theone or more federated areas may be transmitted back to the externalstorage space. In contrast, the job flow definition that defines the jobflow under development may be transferred in either direction between toenable both groups of developers to be guided by the definition of thejob flow therein and/or to enable either of these two groups ofdevelopers to modify it as the job flow evolves throughout itsdevelopment.

There may be other embodiments in which an external storage space isused to disseminate new objects among multiple persons and/or entitiesthat do not have access to the selected one or more federated areas, andthe transfers to synchronize the conditions of objects therebetween maybe entirely unidirectional from the designated federated area and to theexternal storage space. More specifically, it may be that fullydeveloped and tested objects deemed ready for widespread disseminationfor use by others are caused to be stored within the designatedfederated area (or within a portion thereof that is designated as atransfer area), and the fact that such an object has been stored thereinmay be used as the trigger to cause the automatic transfer of a copy ofthat object to the external storage space, while in contrast, there maybe no automated transfers of objects back to the federated area from theexternal storage space.

Regardless of the exact manner in which objects are received by the oneor more federated devices for storage in a federated area, it may bethat at least some of those received objects may be written in a varietyof different programming languages. More specifically, while someobjects may be received that are written in a primary programminglanguage that is normally expected to be interpreted by the one or morefederated devices during a performance of a job flow (e.g., the SASprogramming language), other objects may be received that may be writtenin one of a pre-selected set of secondary programming languages the oneor more federated devices may also be capable of interpreting during aperformance of a job flow (e.g., C, R, Python™).

As will be explained in greater detail, it may be deemed desirable toprovide support for objects written in such secondary language(s) toenable programmers who are unfamiliar with the primary language tononetheless avail themselves of the various benefits of federated areas.Additionally, supporting such secondary languages may enable programmerswho are unfamiliar with the primary language and/or the features offederated areas, the highly structured nature of federated areas and/orthe writing of programs for a many-task computing environment to stillbe able to collaborate with other programmers who are familiartherewith.

As part of supporting the use of one or more secondary programminglanguages, some limited degree of translation of programming languagesmay be performed on portions of objects received by the one or morefederated devices. More specifically, the one or more federated devicesmay automatically translate portion(s) of a job flow definition thatdefines input and/or output interfaces for each task specified as partof its job flow, and/or may translate portion(s) of a task routine thatimplement input and/or output interfaces. Such translations may be fromboth the primary programming language and any of the pre-selectedsecondary programming languages, and into a single type of intermediaterepresentation, such as an intermediate data structure or anintermediate programming language (e.g., JSON). This may enablecomparisons to be made among specifications and/or implementations ofinput and/or output interfaces to be performed, regardless of which ofthe programming languages were used to write the specifications and/orimplementations of those input and/or output interfaces. In this way,multiple programming languages are able to be accommodated while stillusing such comparisons to enforce the earlier described rules that maybe used to limit what job flow definitions and/or task routines may bepermitted to be stored within the one or more federated areas.

In some embodiments, the performance of translations from the primaryprogramming language and/or secondary programming language(s) may belimited to such translations of specifications and/or implementations ofinput and/or output interfaces into such an intermediate representationfor such comparisons. It may be deemed undesirable and/or unnecessary totranslate other portions of task routines and/or job flow definitions toperform such comparisons and/or for any other purpose.

However, in other embodiments, it may deemed desirable to performtranslations to the extent needed to derive a task routine written inthe primary programming language from a task routine written a secondaryprogramming language. This may be deemed desirable to enable developerswho are generating objects required for a job flow in the primaryprogramming language to have access to a version of the job flowdefinition that is also written in the primary programming to serve as aguide for their work and/or to enable them to make modificationsthereto. In embodiments in which it is just the portion(s) of a job flowthat define input and/or output interfaces that are written in aparticular programming language, the translation thereof into theintermediate representation (e.g., an intermediate programming language)may be used as the basis for translations between primary and secondaryprogramming languages. More specifically, where a job flow definition isreceived in which portion(s) that define input and/or output interfacesare written in a secondary programming language, the intermediaterepresentation into which those portion(s) are translated to enable theaforedescribed comparisons may also be used as the basis to generatecorresponding portion(s) that define the input and/or output interfacesin the primary language as part of a translated form of the job flowdefinition. In such embodiments, it may be translated form of the jobflow definition that is then stored, instead of the originally receivedjob flow definition.

Additionally, in such embodiments in which a translated form of a jobflow definition with input and/or output interface definitions in theprimary language may be generated from an originally received job flowdefinition that includes input and/or output interface definitions in asecondary language, it may be that such translations are performedbi-directionally as part of further supporting a collaboration among acombination of developers in which both the primary and secondarylanguages are used. More specifically, where a job flow definition inwhich input and/or output interface definitions are written in theprimary language, an intermediate representation into which thoseportion(s) are translated to enable the aforedescribed comparisons mayalso be used as the basis to generate corresponding input and/or outputinterface definitions in a secondary programming language. Such areverse translation may be performed regardless of whether the job flowdefinition with input and/or output definitions was originally writtenin the primary programming language, or was translated into the primaryprogramming language from an originally received job flow definitionwritten in a secondary programming language. This may be deemeddesirable to enable developers who are generating objects required for ajob flow in a secondary programming language to have access to a versionof the job flow definition that is also written in the secondaryprogramming to serve as a guide for their work and/or to enable them tomake modifications thereto.

By providing such translations of a job flow definition back and forthbetween the primary programming language and a secondary programminglanguage, either the developers who write in the primary programminglanguage or the developers who write in the secondary programminglanguage are able to read and/or edit the job flow definition in theirchosen programming language. In this way, the developers using thesecondary programming language are put on a more equal footing ascollaborators with the developers using the primary programming languageas developers of either group are able to participate in shaping thedefinition of the job flow to which both groups are contributingobjects.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, a job flow definition mayadditionally include executable GUI instructions to implement a GUIinterface that is to be provided during a performance of the job flowthat is defined therein. In such embodiments, it may be deemed desirableto provide more extensive translation capabilities to enable thetranslation of GUI instructions between programming languages as part ofproviding a translated form of a job flow definition with input and/oroutput definitions, and also GUI instructions, written in the primaryprogramming language from a received job flow definition with inputand/or output definitions, and also GUI instructions, written in asecondary programming language, and vice versa.

In various embodiments, a set of objects needed to perform an analysismay effectively be provided to the one or more federated devices in theform of a complex data structure such as a spreadsheet data structure.Such a data structure may contain the equivalent of one or more datasets organized as two-dimensional arrays (e.g., tables) therein, maycontain one or more calculations of the analysis organized as multipleequations that may each be stored in a separate row, and/or may specifyone or more graphs that are to be presented based on a performance ofthe analysis. The one or more federated devices may interpret such adata structure to derive therefrom the set of objects needed to performthe analysis defined within the data structure as a job flow in whichthe analysis is divided into tasks that are each performed as a resultof executing a corresponding task routine.

More precisely, the multiple equations within the data structure may beanalyzed, along with the organization of the data into one or moretwo-dimensional arrays within the data structure, to derive definitionsof input and output interfaces for each of the equations and to identifyeach distinct data object. The multiple equations may also be analyzed,in view of the derived input and/or output interface definitions, toidentify the dependencies thereamong. Various checks may be made forinstances of mismatched interfaces, missing data that is required asinput and/or unused data to determine whether the contents of the datastructure set forth analysis a complete analysis that is able to beperformed. Presuming that the analysis is determined to be performable,a job flow definition may be derived based on the input and/or outputinterfaces and the identified dependencies in which each of theequations may be treated as a task of the job flow that is defined bythe job flow definition. Each equation may be parsed to generate acorresponding task routine to perform the task of that equation, asspecified in the job flow definition. Each identified data object may begenerated from a two-dimensional array or a portion of a two-dimensionalarray within the data structure. This set of generated data objects maythen be stored within the federated area into which it was requestedthat the data structure be stored. In some embodiments, the datastructure, itself, may also be stored within the federated area as ameasure to provide accountability for the quality of the conversion ofthe data structure into the set of objects.

In various embodiments, a request may be received to perform a specifiedset of tasks using one or more data objects as inputs where the requestmakes no reference, either directly or indirectly, to any job flowdefinition that may already be stored in a federated area. Indeed, itmay be that there is no pre-existing job flow definition for performingthe specified set of tasks. The request may additionally specify whichdata object(s) that are generated as outputs during the performance ofthe set of tasks are to be stored within a federated area and/or are tobe transmitted back to the device from which the request is received.The specification of each task in the request may include thespecification of the one or more data objects that are to be used as itsinputs, and/or may include the specification of the one or more dataobjects that are to be generated as outputs. Alternatively oradditionally, the specification of each task in the request may definethe input and/or output interfaces thereof, or there may be reliance onthe definition of the input and/or output interfaces provided by theexecutable instructions and/or comments of the one or more task routinesthat perform each of the specified tasks when executed.

In some of such requests, one or more objects required for theperformance of the specified set of tasks may be provided along with therequest. By way of example, one or more of the data objects to be usedas an input may be directly incorporated into the request and/or mayotherwise accompany the request. In response, the one or more federateddevices may initially store such data object(s) in a federated areabefore commencing the requested performance of the set of tasks.

The one or more federated devices may analyze the specification in therequest of each task, along with any specification in the request ofdata objects that are the input(s) and/or output(s) of each specifiedtask, and/or along with any definition in the request of input and/oroutput interface(s) for each specified task, to identify dependenciesamong the specified tasks. From at least these identified dependencies,a job flow definition for the requested performance of the set of tasksmay be derived. In so doing, the one or more federated devices may alsoidentify opportunities for parallelism in which different ones of thespecified tasks are able to be performed at least partially in parallelas a result of a lack of dependencies thereamong.

Alternatively or additionally, where a data object specified as an inputis stored in a distributed manner across multiple federated devices ormultiple storage devices, the one or more federated devices thatreceived the request may employ such distributed storage as anopportunity for at least partially parallel performances of multipleinstances a task that requires that data object as an input by selectingthe multiple federated devices or multiple storage devices in which thatdata object is stored to be used in performing that task. In this way,such a distributed object may be used in situ where it is alreadystored, thereby obviating the need to exchange portions of it amongdevices. To enable such partially parallel performances of that task,each of the selected federated devices or storage devices may beprovided with a container that includes a copy of a task routine that isto be executed to cause the performance of the task within each of theselected devices, any other executable routines that may be needed tosupport the execution of that task routine, and/or any other dataobjects also required as an input to each of the at least partiallyparallel performances of that task.

Each such at least partially parallel performance of that task maygenerate a separate block of a data object as an output. As a result,such a data object is generated in a distributed form. The one or morefederated devices may retrieve and perform a reduction operation onthose blocks of the generated data object if the request includes anindication that the generated data object is to be stored in a federatedarea and/or is to be transmitted back to the requesting device fromwhich the request was received. Otherwise, each of such blocks of thegenerated data object may be caused to simply remain stored within thefederated device or the storage device within which it was generated,and may serve as an input to one of multiple at least partially parallelperformances of another of the specified tasks.

In some embodiments, the one or more federated devices that received therequest may initially attempt to determine whether the set of specifiedtasks has already been previously performed with the specified dataobject(s) as input. An attempt may be made to match the identifiers ofthe tasks specified in the request to an existing job flow definition inwhich the same set of tasks are performed. The identifier of thatmatching job flow definition may then be used along with the identifiersof each of the data objects specified in the request to attempt toidentify an instance log that documents a past performance of the jobflow defined by the matching job flow definition with the same dataobjects specified as inputs thereto. In response to having identifiedsuch a matching instance log, the identifier(s) provided therein foreach of the data objects generated as output may be used to retrieveeach of those output data objects, and then those output data objectsmay be transmitted to the requesting device in lieu of performing theset of tasks specified in the request.

The request may have formatting, syntax and/or other characteristicsselected to cause the request to conform to one or more industryspecifications for communications between devices. More specifically,the request may be generated by the requesting device to havecharacteristics conforming to one or more of the versions of theMessage-Passing Interface (MPI) specification promulgated by the MPIForum, which is a cooperative venture by numerous governmental,corporate and academic entities from around the world. Still morespecifically, the request may generated to conform to the specificationfor OpenMPI, a variant of MPI promulgated by Software in the PublicInterest (SPI) of New York, N.Y. in the USA.

In such embodiments, the manner in which each task, its inputs and/orits outputs are specified in the request may conform to a format for anapplication programming interface (API) associated with one or more ofthe versions of the MPI specification. Alternatively or additionally,the request may embed one or more of the specified data objects requiredas input the performance of the set of specified tasks as streaming datain accordance with one or more of the versions of the MPI specification.Further, the manner in which the federated devices and/or storagedevices communicate to effect the requested performance of the set ofspecified tasks may conform to one or more versions of the MPIspecification, and/or the manner in which response(s) to the request aretransmitted back to the requesting device may do so.

In various embodiments, one or more of comments descriptive of inputand/or output interfaces within one or more task routines, portions ofinstructions within one or more task routines that implement inputand/or output interfaces, and specifications of input and/or outputinterfaces provided in one or more job flow definitions may be used togenerate a DAG of one or more task routines and/or of a job flow. Moreprecisely, such information may be used to build any of a variety ofdata structure(s) that correlate inputs and/or outputs to tasks and/orthe task routines that are to perform those tasks, and from which a DAGfor one or more task routines and/or a job flow may be generated and/orvisually presented. In some embodiments, such a data structure mayinclude script generated in a markup language and/or a block ofprogramming code for each task or task routine (e.g., a macro employingsyntax from any of a variety of programming languages). Regardless ofthe form of the data structure(s) that are generated, such a datastructure may also specify the task routine identifier assigned to eachtask routine and/or the flow task identifier identifying the taskperformed by each task routine.

Which one or more task routines are to be included in such a DAG may bespecified in any of a variety of ways. By way of example, a request maybe received for a DAG that includes one or more tasks or task routinesthat are explicitly identified by their respective flow task identifiersand/or task routine identifiers. By way of another example, a requestmay be received for a DAG that includes all of the task routinescurrently stored within a federated area that may be specified by a URL.By way of still another example, a request may be received for a DAGthat includes task routines for all of the tasks identified within aspecified job flow definition. And, by way of yet another example, arequest may be received for a DAG that includes all of the task routinesspecified by their identifiers in an instance log of a previousperformance of a job flow. Regardless of the exact manner in which oneor more tasks and/or task routines may be specified in a request forinclusion within a DAG, each task routine that is directly identified orthat is specified indirectly through the flow task identifier of thetask it performs may be searched for within one or more federated areasas earlier described.

In situations in which a DAG is requested that is to include multipletasks and/or task routines, the DAG may be generated to indicate anydependencies thereamong. In some embodiments, a visualization of the DAGmay be generated to provide a visual indication of such a dependency,such as a line, arrow, color coding, graphical symbols and/or other formof visual connector indicative of the dependency may be generated withinthe visualization to visually link an output of the one task routine toan input of the other. In embodiments in which the parsing of taskroutines and/or of job flows includes comparisons between pieces ofinformation that may result in the detection of discrepancies in suchdetails as dependencies among tasks and/or among task routines, suchdiscrepancies may be visually indicated in a DAG in any of a variety ofways. By way of example, a DAG may be generated to indicate suchdiscrepancies with color coding, graphical symbols and/or other form ofvisual indicator positioned at or adjacent to the graphical depiction ofthe affected input or output in the DAG. Such a visual indicator maythereby serve as a visual prompt to personnel viewing the DAG to accessthe affected task routine(s) and/or affected job flow definition toexamine and/or correct the discrepancy. Alternatively or additionally,at least a pair of alternate DAGs may be generated, and personnel may beprovided with a user interface (UI) that enables “toggling” therebetweenand/or a side-by-side comparison, where one DAG is based on the detailsof inputs and/or outputs provided by comments while another DAG is basedon the manner in which those details are actually implemented inexecutable code.

In some embodiments, with a DAG generated and visually presented forviewing by personnel involved in the development of new task routinesand/or new job flow definitions, such personnel may be provided with aUI that enables editing of the DAG. More specifically, a UI may beprovided that enables depicted dependencies between inputs and outputsof task routines to be removed or otherwise changed, and/or that enablesnew dependencies to be added. Through the provision of such a UI,personnel involved in the development of new task routines and/or newjob flow definitions may be able to define a new job flow by modifying aDAG generated from one or more task routines. Indeed, the one or moretask routines may be selected for inclusion in a DAG for the purpose ofhaving them available in the DAG for inclusion in the new job flow.Regardless of whether or not a DAG generated from one or more taskroutines is edited as has just been described, a UI may be provided toenable personnel to choose to save the DAG as a new job flow definition.Regardless of whether the DAG is saved for use as a job flow definition,or simply to retain the DAG for future reference, the DAG may be storedas a script generated in a process description language such as businessprocess model and notation (BPMN) promulgated by the Object ManagementGroup of Needham, Mass., USA.

As an alternative to receiving a request to generate a DAG based on atleast one or more task routines, a request may be received by one ormore federated devices from another device to provide the other devicewith objects needed to enable the other device to so generate a DAG. Insome embodiments, such a request may be treated in a manner similar toearlier described requests to retrieve objects needed to enable anotherdevice to perform a job flow with most recent versions of task routinesor to repeat a past performance of a job flow, as documented by aninstance log. However, in some embodiments, the data structure(s)generated from parsing task routines and/or a job flow definition may betransmitted to the other device in lieu of transmitting the taskroutines, themselves. This may be deemed desirable as a mechanism toreduce the quantity of information transmitted to the other device forits use in generating a DAG.

Regardless of whether a requested DAG is to include a depiction of asingle task routine or of multiple task routines, it may be that, priorto the receipt of the request for the DAG, one or more of the taskroutines to be depicted therein may have been test executed to observetheir input/output behavior within a container environment as previouslydescribed. As also previously discussed, an indication of theinput/output behavior observed under such container environmentconditions for each task routine so tested may be stored in any of avariety of ways to enable its subsequent retrieval. It may be that anindication of the input/output behavior that was observed may bepositioned next to the depiction of a corresponding task routine withinthe requested DAG.

With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein,portions of the detailed description that follows may be presented interms of program procedures executed by a processor of a machine or ofmultiple networked machines. These procedural descriptions andrepresentations are used by those skilled in the art to most effectivelyconvey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. Aprocedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistentsequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations arethose requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually,though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical,magnetic or optical communications capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient attimes, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to what iscommunicated as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms,numbers, or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these andsimilar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physicalquantities and are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities.

Further, these manipulations are often referred to in terms, such asadding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mentaloperations performed by a human operator. However, no such capability ofa human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of theoperations described herein that form part of one or more embodiments.Rather, these operations are machine operations. Useful machines forperforming operations of various embodiments include machinesselectively activated or configured by a routine stored within that iswritten in accordance with the teachings herein, and/or includeapparatus specially constructed for the required purpose. Variousembodiments also relate to apparatus or systems for performing theseoperations. These apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purpose or may include a general purpose computer. The requiredstructure for a variety of these machines will appear from thedescription given.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numeralsare used to refer to like elements throughout. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It maybe evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced withoutthese specific details. In other instances, well known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate adescription thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives within the scope of the claims.

Systems depicted in some of the figures may be provided in variousconfigurations. In some embodiments, the systems may be configured as adistributed system where one or more components of the system aredistributed across one or more networks in a cloud computing systemand/or a fog computing system.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram that provides an illustration of the hardwarecomponents of a data transmission network 100, according to embodimentsof the present technology. Data transmission network 100 is aspecialized computer system that may be used for processing largeamounts of data where a large number of computer processing cycles arerequired.

Data transmission network 100 may also include computing environment114. Computing environment 114 may be a specialized computer or othermachine that processes the data received within the data transmissionnetwork 100. Data transmission network 100 also includes one or morenetwork devices 102. Network devices 102 may include client devices thatattempt to communicate with computing environment 114. For example,network devices 102 may send data to the computing environment 114 to beprocessed, may send signals to the computing environment 114 to controldifferent aspects of the computing environment or the data it isprocessing, among other reasons. Network devices 102 may interact withthe computing environment 114 through a number of ways, such as, forexample, over one or more networks 108. As shown in FIG. 1, computingenvironment 114 may include one or more other systems. For example,computing environment 114 may include a database system 118 and/or acommunications grid 120.

In other embodiments, network devices may provide a large amount ofdata, either all at once or streaming over a period of time (e.g., usingevent stream processing (ESP), described further with respect to FIGS.8-10), to the computing environment 114 via networks 108. For example,network devices 102 may include network computers, sensors, databases,or other devices that may transmit or otherwise provide data tocomputing environment 114. For example, network devices may includelocal area network devices, such as routers, hubs, switches, or othercomputer networking devices. These devices may provide a variety ofstored or generated data, such as network data or data specific to thenetwork devices themselves. Network devices may also include sensorsthat monitor their environment or other devices to collect dataregarding that environment or those devices, and such network devicesmay provide data they collect over time. Network devices may alsoinclude devices within the internet of things, such as devices within ahome automation network. Some of these devices may be referred to asedge devices, and may involve edge computing circuitry. Data may betransmitted by network devices directly to computing environment 114 orto network-attached data stores, such as network-attached data stores110 for storage so that the data may be retrieved later by the computingenvironment 114 or other portions of data transmission network 100.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or morenetwork-attached data stores 110. Network-attached data stores 110 areused to store data to be processed by the computing environment 114 aswell as any intermediate or final data generated by the computing systemin non-volatile memory. However in certain embodiments, theconfiguration of the computing environment 114 allows its operations tobe performed such that intermediate and final data results can be storedsolely in volatile memory (e.g., RAM), without a requirement thatintermediate or final data results be stored to non-volatile types ofmemory (e.g., disk). This can be useful in certain situations, such aswhen the computing environment 114 receives ad hoc queries from a userand when responses, which are generated by processing large amounts ofdata, need to be generated on-the-fly. In this non-limiting situation,the computing environment 114 may be configured to retain the processedinformation within memory so that responses can be generated for theuser at different levels of detail as well as allow a user tointeractively query against this information.

Network-attached data stores may store a variety of different types ofdata organized in a variety of different ways and from a variety ofdifferent sources. For example, network-attached data storage mayinclude storage other than primary storage located within computingenvironment 114 that is directly accessible by processors locatedtherein. Network-attached data storage may include secondary, tertiaryor auxiliary storage, such as large hard drives, servers, virtualmemory, among other types. Storage devices may include portable ornon-portable storage devices, optical storage devices, and various othermediums capable of storing, containing data. A machine-readable storagemedium or computer-readable storage medium may include a non-transitorymedium in which data can be stored and that does not include carrierwaves and/or transitory electronic signals. Examples of a non-transitorymedium may include, for example, a magnetic disk or tape, opticalstorage media such as compact disk or digital versatile disk, flashmemory, memory or memory devices. A computer-program product may includecode and/or machine-executable instructions that may represent aprocedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine,a module, a software package, a class, or any combination ofinstructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment maybe coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passingand/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memorycontents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed,forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memorysharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, amongothers. Furthermore, the data stores may hold a variety of differenttypes of data. For example, network-attached data stores 110 may holdunstructured (e.g., raw) data, such as manufacturing data (e.g., adatabase containing records identifying products being manufactured withparameter data for each product, such as colors and models) or productsales databases (e.g., a database containing individual data recordsidentifying details of individual product sales).

The unstructured data may be presented to the computing environment 114in different forms such as a flat file or a conglomerate of datarecords, and may have data values and accompanying time stamps. Thecomputing environment 114 may be used to analyze the unstructured datain a variety of ways to determine the best way to structure (e.g.,hierarchically) that data, such that the structured data is tailored toa type of further analysis that a user wishes to perform on the data.For example, after being processed, the unstructured time stamped datamay be aggregated by time (e.g., into daily time period units) togenerate time series data and/or structured hierarchically according toone or more dimensions (e.g., parameters, attributes, and/or variables).For example, data may be stored in a hierarchical data structure, suchas a ROLAP OR MOLAP database, or may be stored in another tabular form,such as in a flat-hierarchy form.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or more server farms106. Computing environment 114 may route select communications or datato the one or more sever farms 106 or one or more servers within theserver farms. Server farms 106 can be configured to provide informationin a predetermined manner. For example, server farms 106 may access datato transmit in response to a communication. Server farms 106 may beseparately housed from each other device within data transmissionnetwork 100, such as computing environment 114, and/or may be part of adevice or system.

Server farms 106 may host a variety of different types of dataprocessing as part of data transmission network 100. Server farms 106may receive a variety of different data from network devices, fromcomputing environment 114, from cloud network 116, or from othersources. The data may have been obtained or collected from one or moresensors, as inputs from a control database, or may have been received asinputs from an external system or device. Server farms 106 may assist inprocessing the data by turning raw data into processed data based on oneor more rules implemented by the server farms. For example, sensor datamay be analyzed to determine changes in an environment over time or inreal-time.

Data transmission network 100 may also include one or more cloudnetworks 116. Cloud network 116 may include a cloud infrastructuresystem that provides cloud services. In certain embodiments, servicesprovided by the cloud network 116 may include a host of services thatare made available to users of the cloud infrastructure system on demandCloud network 116 is shown in FIG. 1 as being connected to computingenvironment 114 (and therefore having computing environment 114 as itsclient or user), but cloud network 116 may be connected to or utilizedby any of the devices in FIG. 1. Services provided by the cloud networkcan dynamically scale to meet the needs of its users. The cloud network116 may include one or more computers, servers, and/or systems. In someembodiments, the computers, servers, and/or systems that make up thecloud network 116 are different from the user's own on-premisescomputers, servers, and/or systems. For example, the cloud network 116may host an application, and a user may, via a communication networksuch as the Internet, on demand, order and use the application.

While each device, server and system in FIG. 1 is shown as a singledevice, it will be appreciated that multiple devices may instead beused. For example, a set of network devices can be used to transmitvarious communications from a single user, or remote server 140 mayinclude a server stack. As another example, data may be processed aspart of computing environment 114.

Each communication within data transmission network 100 (e.g., betweenclient devices, between servers 106 and computing environment 114 orbetween a server and a device) may occur over one or more networks 108.Networks 108 may include one or more of a variety of different types ofnetworks, including a wireless network, a wired network, or acombination of a wired and wireless network. Examples of suitablenetworks include the Internet, a personal area network, a local areanetwork (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN). A wireless network may include a wireless interface orcombination of wireless interfaces. As an example, a network in the oneor more networks 108 may include a short-range communication channel,such as a BLUETOOTH® communication channel or a BLUETOOTH® Low Energycommunication channel. A wired network may include a wired interface.The wired and/or wireless networks may be implemented using routers,access points, bridges, gateways, or the like, to connect devices in thenetwork 114, as will be further described with respect to FIG. 2. Theone or more networks 108 can be incorporated entirely within or caninclude an intranet, an extranet, or a combination thereof. In oneembodiment, communications between two or more systems and/or devicescan be achieved by a secure communications protocol, such as securesockets layer (SSL) or transport layer security (TLS). In addition, dataand/or transactional details may be encrypted.

Some aspects may utilize the Internet of Things (IoT), where things(e.g., machines, devices, phones, sensors) can be connected to networksand the data from these things can be collected and processed within thethings and/or external to the things. For example, the IoT can includesensors in many different devices, and high value analytics can beapplied to identify hidden relationships and drive increasedefficiencies. This can apply to both big data analytics and real-time(e.g., ESP) analytics. This will be described further below with respectto FIG. 2.

As noted, computing environment 114 may include a communications grid120 and a transmission network database system 118. Communications grid120 may be a grid-based computing system for processing large amounts ofdata. The transmission network database system 118 may be for managing,storing, and retrieving large amounts of data that are distributed toand stored in the one or more network-attached data stores 110 or otherdata stores that reside at different locations within the transmissionnetwork database system 118. The compute nodes in the grid-basedcomputing system 120 and the transmission network database system 118may share the same processor hardware, such as processors that arelocated within computing environment 114.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example network including an example set ofdevices communicating with each other over an exchange system and via anetwork, according to embodiments of the present technology. As noted,each communication within data transmission network 100 may occur overone or more networks. System 200 includes a network device 204configured to communicate with a variety of types of client devices, forexample client devices 230, over a variety of types of communicationchannels.

As shown in FIG. 2, network device 204 can transmit a communication overa network (e.g., a cellular network via a base station 210). Thecommunication can be routed to another network device, such as networkdevices 205-209, via base station 210. The communication can also berouted to computing environment 214 via base station 210. For example,network device 204 may collect data either from its surroundingenvironment or from other network devices (such as network devices205-209) and transmit that data to computing environment 214.

Although network devices 204-209 are shown in FIG. 2 as a mobile phone,laptop computer, tablet computer, temperature sensor, motion sensor, andaudio sensor respectively, the network devices may be or include sensorsthat are sensitive to detecting aspects of their environment. Forexample, the network devices may include sensors such as water sensors,power sensors, electrical current sensors, chemical sensors, opticalsensors, pressure sensors, geographic or position sensors (e.g., GPS),velocity sensors, acceleration sensors, flow rate sensors, among others.Examples of characteristics that may be sensed include force, torque,load, strain, position, temperature, air pressure, fluid flow, chemicalproperties, resistance, electromagnetic fields, radiation, irradiance,proximity, acoustics, moisture, distance, speed, vibrations,acceleration, electrical potential, electrical current, among others.The sensors may be mounted to various components used as part of avariety of different types of systems (e.g., an oil drilling operation).The network devices may detect and record data related to theenvironment that it monitors, and transmit that data to computingenvironment 214.

As noted, one type of system that may include various sensors thatcollect data to be processed and/or transmitted to a computingenvironment according to certain embodiments includes an oil drillingsystem. For example, the one or more drilling operation sensors mayinclude surface sensors that measure a hook load, a fluid rate, atemperature and a density in and out of the wellbore, a standpipepressure, a surface torque, a rotation speed of a drill pipe, a rate ofpenetration, a mechanical specific energy, etc. and downhole sensorsthat measure a rotation speed of a bit, fluid densities, downholetorque, downhole vibration (axial, tangential, lateral), a weightapplied at a drill bit, an annular pressure, a differential pressure, anazimuth, an inclination, a dog leg severity, a measured depth, avertical depth, a downhole temperature, etc. Besides the raw datacollected directly by the sensors, other data may include parameterseither developed by the sensors or assigned to the system by a client orother controlling device. For example, one or more drilling operationcontrol parameters may control settings such as a mud motor speed toflow ratio, a bit diameter, a predicted formation top, seismic data,weather data, etc. Other data may be generated using physical modelssuch as an earth model, a weather model, a seismic model, a bottom holeassembly model, a well plan model, an annular friction model, etc. Inaddition to sensor and control settings, predicted outputs, of forexample, the rate of penetration, mechanical specific energy, hook load,flow in fluid rate, flow out fluid rate, pump pressure, surface torque,rotation speed of the drill pipe, annular pressure, annular frictionpressure, annular temperature, equivalent circulating density, etc. mayalso be stored in the data warehouse.

In another example, another type of system that may include varioussensors that collect data to be processed and/or transmitted to acomputing environment according to certain embodiments includes a homeautomation or similar automated network in a different environment, suchas an office space, school, public space, sports venue, or a variety ofother locations. Network devices in such an automated network mayinclude network devices that allow a user to access, control, and/orconfigure various home appliances located within the user's home (e.g.,a television, radio, light, fan, humidifier, sensor, microwave, iron,and/or the like), or outside of the user's home (e.g., exterior motionsensors, exterior lighting, garage door openers, sprinkler systems, orthe like). For example, network device 102 may include a home automationswitch that may be coupled with a home appliance. In another embodiment,a network device can allow a user to access, control, and/or configuredevices, such as office-related devices (e.g., copy machine, printer, orfax machine), audio and/or video related devices (e.g., a receiver, aspeaker, a projector, a DVD player, or a television), media-playbackdevices (e.g., a compact disc player, a CD player, or the like),computing devices (e.g., a home computer, a laptop computer, a tablet, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a computing device, or a wearabledevice), lighting devices (e.g., a lamp or recessed lighting), devicesassociated with a security system, devices associated with an alarmsystem, devices that can be operated in an automobile (e.g., radiodevices, navigation devices), and/or the like. Data may be collectedfrom such various sensors in raw form, or data may be processed by thesensors to create parameters or other data either developed by thesensors based on the raw data or assigned to the system by a client orother controlling device.

In another example, another type of system that may include varioussensors that collect data to be processed and/or transmitted to acomputing environment according to certain embodiments includes a poweror energy grid. A variety of different network devices may be includedin an energy grid, such as various devices within one or more powerplants, energy farms (e.g., wind farm, solar farm, among others) energystorage facilities, factories, homes and businesses of consumers, amongothers. One or more of such devices may include one or more sensors thatdetect energy gain or loss, electrical input or output or loss, and avariety of other efficiencies. These sensors may collect data to informusers of how the energy grid, and individual devices within the grid,may be functioning and how they may be made more efficient.

Network device sensors may also perform processing on data it collectsbefore transmitting the data to the computing environment 114, or beforedeciding whether to transmit data to the computing environment 114. Forexample, network devices may determine whether data collected meetscertain rules, for example by comparing data or values calculated fromthe data and comparing that data to one or more thresholds. The networkdevice may use this data and/or comparisons to determine if the datashould be transmitted to the computing environment 214 for further useor processing.

Computing environment 214 may include machines 220 and 240. Althoughcomputing environment 214 is shown in FIG. 2 as having two machines, 220and 240, computing environment 214 may have only one machine or may havemore than two machines. The machines that make up computing environment214 may include specialized computers, servers, or other machines thatare configured to individually and/or collectively process large amountsof data. The computing environment 214 may also include storage devicesthat include one or more databases of structured data, such as dataorganized in one or more hierarchies, or unstructured data. Thedatabases may communicate with the processing devices within computingenvironment 214 to distribute data to them. Since network devices maytransmit data to computing environment 214, that data may be received bythe computing environment 214 and subsequently stored within thosestorage devices. Data used by computing environment 214 may also bestored in data stores 235, which may also be a part of or connected tocomputing environment 214.

Computing environment 214 can communicate with various devices via oneor more routers 225 or other inter-network or intra-network connectioncomponents. For example, computing environment 214 may communicate withdevices 230 via one or more routers 225. Computing environment 214 maycollect, analyze and/or store data from or pertaining to communications,client device operations, client rules, and/or user-associated actionsstored at one or more data stores 235. Such data may influencecommunication routing to the devices within computing environment 214,how data is stored or processed within computing environment 214, amongother actions.

Notably, various other devices can further be used to influencecommunication routing and/or processing between devices within computingenvironment 214 and with devices outside of computing environment 214.For example, as shown in FIG. 2, computing environment 214 may include aweb server 240. Thus, computing environment 214 can retrieve data ofinterest, such as client information (e.g., product information, clientrules, etc.), technical product details, news, current or predictedweather, and so on.

In addition to computing environment 214 collecting data (e.g., asreceived from network devices, such as sensors, and client devices orother sources) to be processed as part of a big data analytics project,it may also receive data in real time as part of a streaming analyticsenvironment. As noted, data may be collected using a variety of sourcesas communicated via different kinds of networks or locally. Such datamay be received on a real-time streaming basis. For example, networkdevices may receive data periodically from network device sensors as thesensors continuously sense, monitor and track changes in theirenvironments. Devices within computing environment 214 may also performpre-analysis on data it receives to determine if the data receivedshould be processed as part of an ongoing project. The data received andcollected by computing environment 214, no matter what the source ormethod or timing of receipt, may be processed over a period of time fora client to determine results data based on the client's needs andrules.

FIG. 3 illustrates a representation of a conceptual model of acommunications protocol system, according to embodiments of the presenttechnology. More specifically, FIG. 3 identifies operation of acomputing environment in an Open Systems Interaction model thatcorresponds to various connection components. The model 300 shows, forexample, how a computing environment, such as computing environment 314(or computing environment 214 in FIG. 2) may communicate with otherdevices in its network, and control how communications between thecomputing environment and other devices are executed and under whatconditions.

The model can include layers 301-307. The layers are arranged in astack. Each layer in the stack serves the layer one level higher than it(except for the application layer, which is the highest layer), and isserved by the layer one level below it (except for the physical layer,which is the lowest layer). The physical layer is the lowest layerbecause it receives and transmits raw bites of data, and is the farthestlayer from the user in a communications system. On the other hand, theapplication layer is the highest layer because it interacts directlywith a software application.

As noted, the model includes a physical layer 301. Physical layer 301represents physical communication, and can define parameters of thatphysical communication. For example, such physical communication maycome in the form of electrical, optical, or electromagnetic signals.Physical layer 301 also defines protocols that may controlcommunications within a data transmission network.

Link layer 302 defines links and mechanisms used to transmit (i.e.,move) data across a network. The link layer 302 manages node-to-nodecommunications, such as within a grid computing environment. Link layer302 can detect and correct errors (e.g., transmission errors in thephysical layer 301). Link layer 302 can also include a media accesscontrol (MAC) layer and logical link control (LLC) layer.

Network layer 303 defines the protocol for routing within a network. Inother words, the network layer coordinates transferring data acrossnodes in a same network (e.g., such as a grid computing environment).Network layer 303 can also define the processes used to structure localaddressing within the network.

Transport layer 304 can manage the transmission of data and the qualityof the transmission and/or receipt of that data. Transport layer 304 canprovide a protocol for transferring data, such as, for example, aTransmission Control Protocol (TCP). Transport layer 304 can assembleand disassemble data frames for transmission. The transport layer canalso detect transmission errors occurring in the layers below it.

Session layer 305 can establish, maintain, and manage communicationconnections between devices on a network. In other words, the sessionlayer controls the dialogues or nature of communications between networkdevices on the network. The session layer may also establishcheckpointing, adjournment, termination, and restart procedures.

Presentation layer 306 can provide translation for communicationsbetween the application and network layers. In other words, this layermay encrypt, decrypt and/or format data based on data types and/orencodings known to be accepted by an application or network layer.

Application layer 307 interacts directly with software applications andend users, and manages communications between them. Application layer307 can identify destinations, local resource states or availabilityand/or communication content or formatting using the applications.

Intra-network connection components 321 and 322 are shown to operate inlower levels, such as physical layer 301 and link layer 302,respectively. For example, a hub can operate in the physical layer, aswitch can operate in the link layer, and a router can operate in thenetwork layer. Inter-network connection components 323 and 328 are shownto operate on higher levels, such as layers 303-307. For example,routers can operate in the network layer and network devices can operatein the transport, session, presentation, and application layers.

As noted, a computing environment 314 can interact with and/or operateon, in various embodiments, one, more, all or any of the various layers.For example, computing environment 314 can interact with a hub (e.g.,via the link layer) so as to adjust which devices the hub communicateswith. The physical layer may be served by the link layer, so it mayimplement such data from the link layer. For example, the computingenvironment 314 may control which devices it will receive data from. Forexample, if the computing environment 314 knows that a certain networkdevice has turned off, broken, or otherwise become unavailable orunreliable, the computing environment 314 may instruct the hub toprevent any data from being transmitted to the computing environment 314from that network device. Such a process may be beneficial to avoidreceiving data that is inaccurate or that has been influenced by anuncontrolled environment. As another example, computing environment 314can communicate with a bridge, switch, router or gateway and influencewhich device within the system (e.g., system 200) the component selectsas a destination. In some embodiments, computing environment 314 caninteract with various layers by exchanging communications with equipmentoperating on a particular layer by routing or modifying existingcommunications. In another embodiment, such as in a grid computingenvironment, a node may determine how data within the environment shouldbe routed (e.g., which node should receive certain data) based oncertain parameters or information provided by other layers within themodel.

As noted, the computing environment 314 may be a part of acommunications grid environment, the communications of which may beimplemented as shown in the protocol of FIG. 3. For example, referringback to FIG. 2, one or more of machines 220 and 240 may be part of acommunications grid computing environment. A gridded computingenvironment may be employed in a distributed system with non-interactiveworkloads where data resides in memory on the machines, or computenodes. In such an environment, analytic code, instead of a databasemanagement system, controls the processing performed by the nodes. Datais co-located by pre-distributing it to the grid nodes, and the analyticcode on each node loads the local data into memory. Each node may beassigned a particular task such as a portion of a processing project, orto organize or control other nodes within the grid.

FIG. 4 illustrates a communications grid computing system 400 includinga variety of control and worker nodes, according to embodiments of thepresent technology.

Communications grid computing system 400 includes three control nodesand one or more worker nodes. Communications grid computing system 400includes control nodes 402, 404, and 406. The control nodes arecommunicatively connected via communication paths 451, 453, and 455.Therefore, the control nodes may transmit information (e.g., related tothe communications grid or notifications), to and receive informationfrom each other. Although communications grid computing system 400 isshown in FIG. 4 as including three control nodes, the communicationsgrid may include more or less than three control nodes.

Communications grid computing system (or just “communications grid”) 400also includes one or more worker nodes. Shown in FIG. 4 are six workernodes 410-420. Although FIG. 4 shows six worker nodes, a communicationsgrid according to embodiments of the present technology may include moreor less than six worker nodes. The number of worker nodes included in acommunications grid may be dependent upon how large the project or dataset is being processed by the communications grid, the capacity of eachworker node, the time designated for the communications grid to completethe project, among others. Each worker node within the communicationsgrid 400 may be connected (wired or wirelessly, and directly orindirectly) to control nodes 402-406. Therefore, each worker node mayreceive information from the control nodes (e.g., an instruction toperform work on a project) and may transmit information to the controlnodes (e.g., a result from work performed on a project). Furthermore,worker nodes may communicate with each other (either directly orindirectly). For example, worker nodes may transmit data between eachother related to a job being performed or an individual task within ajob being performed by that worker node. However, in certainembodiments, worker nodes may not, for example, be connected(communicatively or otherwise) to certain other worker nodes. In anembodiment, worker nodes may only be able to communicate with thecontrol node that controls it, and may not be able to communicate withother worker nodes in the communications grid, whether they are otherworker nodes controlled by the control node that controls the workernode, or worker nodes that are controlled by other control nodes in thecommunications grid.

A control node may connect with an external device with which thecontrol node may communicate (e.g., a grid user, such as a server orcomputer, may connect to a controller of the grid). For example, aserver or computer may connect to control nodes and may transmit aproject or job to the node. The project may include a data set. The dataset may be of any size. Once the control node receives such a projectincluding a large data set, the control node may distribute the data setor projects related to the data set to be performed by worker nodes.Alternatively, for a project including a large data set, the data setmay be received or stored by a machine other than a control node (e.g.,a HADOOP® standard-compliant data node employing the HADOOP® distributedfile system, or HDFS).

Control nodes may maintain knowledge of the status of the nodes in thegrid (i.e., grid status information), accept work requests from clients,subdivide the work across worker nodes, coordinate the worker nodes,among other responsibilities. Worker nodes may accept work requests froma control node and provide the control node with results of the workperformed by the worker node. A grid may be started from a single node(e.g., a machine, computer, server, etc.). This first node may beassigned or may start as the primary control node that will control anyadditional nodes that enter the grid.

When a project is submitted for execution (e.g., by a client or acontroller of the grid) it may be assigned to a set of nodes. After thenodes are assigned to a project, a data structure (i.e., a communicator)may be created. The communicator may be used by the project forinformation to be shared between the project code running on each node.A communication handle may be created on each node. A handle, forexample, is a reference to the communicator that is valid within asingle process on a single node, and the handle may be used whenrequesting communications between nodes.

A control node, such as control node 402, may be designated as theprimary control node. A server, computer or other external device mayconnect to the primary control node. Once the control node receives aproject, the primary control node may distribute portions of the projectto its worker nodes for execution. For example, when a project isinitiated on communications grid 400, primary control node 402 controlsthe work to be performed for the project in order to complete theproject as requested or instructed. The primary control node maydistribute work to the worker nodes based on various factors, such aswhich subsets or portions of projects may be completed most efficientlyand in the correct amount of time. For example, a worker node mayperform analysis on a portion of data that is already local (e.g.,stored on) the worker node. The primary control node also coordinatesand processes the results of the work performed by each worker nodeafter each worker node executes and completes its job. For example, theprimary control node may receive a result from one or more worker nodes,and the control node may organize (e.g., collect and assemble) theresults received and compile them to produce a complete result for theproject received from the end user.

Any remaining control nodes, such as control nodes 404 and 406, may beassigned as backup control nodes for the project. In an embodiment,backup control nodes may not control any portion of the project.Instead, backup control nodes may serve as a backup for the primarycontrol node and take over as primary control node if the primarycontrol node were to fail. If a communications grid were to include onlya single control node, and the control node were to fail (e.g., thecontrol node is shut off or breaks) then the communications grid as awhole may fail and any project or job being run on the communicationsgrid may fail and may not complete. While the project may be run again,such a failure may cause a delay (severe delay in some cases, such asovernight delay) in completion of the project. Therefore, a grid withmultiple control nodes, including a backup control node, may bebeneficial.

To add another node or machine to the grid, the primary control node mayopen a pair of listening sockets, for example. A socket may be used toaccept work requests from clients, and the second socket may be used toaccept connections from other grid nodes. The primary control node maybe provided with a list of other nodes (e.g., other machines, computers,servers) that will participate in the grid, and the role that each nodewill fill in the grid. Upon startup of the primary control node (e.g.,the first node on the grid), the primary control node may use a networkprotocol to start the server process on every other node in the grid.Command line parameters, for example, may inform each node of one ormore pieces of information, such as: the role that the node will have inthe grid, the host name of the primary control node, the port number onwhich the primary control node is accepting connections from peer nodes,among others. The information may also be provided in a configurationfile, transmitted over a secure shell tunnel, recovered from aconfiguration server, among others. While the other machines in the gridmay not initially know about the configuration of the grid, thatinformation may also be sent to each other node by the primary controlnode. Updates of the grid information may also be subsequently sent tothose nodes.

For any control node other than the primary control node added to thegrid, the control node may open three sockets. The first socket mayaccept work requests from clients, the second socket may acceptconnections from other grid members, and the third socket may connect(e.g., permanently) to the primary control node. When a control node(e.g., primary control node) receives a connection from another controlnode, it first checks to see if the peer node is in the list ofconfigured nodes in the grid. If it is not on the list, the control nodemay clear the connection. If it is on the list, it may then attempt toauthenticate the connection. If authentication is successful, theauthenticating node may transmit information to its peer, such as theport number on which a node is listening for connections, the host nameof the node, information about how to authenticate the node, among otherinformation. When a node, such as the new control node, receivesinformation about another active node, it will check to see if italready has a connection to that other node. If it does not have aconnection to that node, it may then establish a connection to thatcontrol node.

Any worker node added to the grid may establish a connection to theprimary control node and any other control nodes on the grid. Afterestablishing the connection, it may authenticate itself to the grid(e.g., any control nodes, including both primary and backup, or a serveror user controlling the grid). After successful authentication, theworker node may accept configuration information from the control node.

When a node joins a communications grid (e.g., when the node is poweredon or connected to an existing node on the grid or both), the node isassigned (e.g., by an operating system of the grid) a universally uniqueidentifier (UUID). This unique identifier may help other nodes andexternal entities (devices, users, etc.) to identify the node anddistinguish it from other nodes. When a node is connected to the grid,the node may share its unique identifier with the other nodes in thegrid. Since each node may share its unique identifier, each node mayknow the unique identifier of every other node on the grid. Uniqueidentifiers may also designate a hierarchy of each of the nodes (e.g.,backup control nodes) within the grid. For example, the uniqueidentifiers of each of the backup control nodes may be stored in a listof backup control nodes to indicate an order in which the backup controlnodes will take over for a failed primary control node to become a newprimary control node. However, a hierarchy of nodes may also bedetermined using methods other than using the unique identifiers of thenodes. For example, the hierarchy may be predetermined, or may beassigned based on other predetermined factors.

The grid may add new machines at any time (e.g., initiated from anycontrol node). Upon adding a new node to the grid, the control node mayfirst add the new node to its table of grid nodes. The control node mayalso then notify every other control node about the new node. The nodesreceiving the notification may acknowledge that they have updated theirconfiguration information.

Primary control node 402 may, for example, transmit one or morecommunications to backup control nodes 404 and 406 (and, for example, toother control or worker nodes within the communications grid). Suchcommunications may sent periodically, at fixed time intervals, betweenknown fixed stages of the project's execution, among other protocols.The communications transmitted by primary control node 402 may be ofvaried types and may include a variety of types of information. Forexample, primary control node 402 may transmit snapshots (e.g., statusinformation) of the communications grid so that backup control node 404always has a recent snapshot of the communications grid. The snapshot orgrid status may include, for example, the structure of the grid(including, for example, the worker nodes in the grid, uniqueidentifiers of the nodes, or their relationships with the primarycontrol node) and the status of a project (including, for example, thestatus of each worker node's portion of the project). The snapshot mayalso include analysis or results received from worker nodes in thecommunications grid. The backup control nodes may receive and store thebackup data received from the primary control node. The backup controlnodes may transmit a request for such a snapshot (or other information)from the primary control node, or the primary control node may send suchinformation periodically to the backup control nodes.

As noted, the backup data may allow the backup control node to take overas primary control node if the primary control node fails withoutrequiring the grid to start the project over from scratch. If theprimary control node fails, the backup control node that will take overas primary control node may retrieve the most recent version of thesnapshot received from the primary control node and use the snapshot tocontinue the project from the stage of the project indicated by thebackup data. This may prevent failure of the project as a whole.

A backup control node may use various methods to determine that theprimary control node has failed. In one example of such a method, theprimary control node may transmit (e.g., periodically) a communicationto the backup control node that indicates that the primary control nodeis working and has not failed, such as a heartbeat communication. Thebackup control node may determine that the primary control node hasfailed if the backup control node has not received a heartbeatcommunication for a certain predetermined period of time. Alternatively,a backup control node may also receive a communication from the primarycontrol node itself (before it failed) or from a worker node that theprimary control node has failed, for example because the primary controlnode has failed to communicate with the worker node.

Different methods may be performed to determine which backup controlnode of a set of backup control nodes (e.g., backup control nodes 404and 406) will take over for failed primary control node 402 and becomethe new primary control node. For example, the new primary control nodemay be chosen based on a ranking or “hierarchy” of backup control nodesbased on their unique identifiers. In an alternative embodiment, abackup control node may be assigned to be the new primary control nodeby another device in the communications grid or from an external device(e.g., a system infrastructure or an end user, such as a server orcomputer, controlling the communications grid). In another alternativeembodiment, the backup control node that takes over as the new primarycontrol node may be designated based on bandwidth or other statisticsabout the communications grid.

A worker node within the communications grid may also fail. If a workernode fails, work being performed by the failed worker node may beredistributed amongst the operational worker nodes. In an alternativeembodiment, the primary control node may transmit a communication toeach of the operable worker nodes still on the communications grid thateach of the worker nodes should purposefully fail also. After each ofthe worker nodes fail, they may each retrieve their most recent savedcheckpoint of their status and re-start the project from that checkpointto minimize lost progress on the project being executed.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process 500 foradjusting a communications grid or a work project in a communicationsgrid after a failure of a node, according to embodiments of the presenttechnology. The process may include, for example, receiving grid statusinformation including a project status of a portion of a project beingexecuted by a node in the communications grid, as described in operation502. For example, a control node (e.g., a backup control node connectedto a primary control node and a worker node on a communications grid)may receive grid status information, where the grid status informationincludes a project status of the primary control node or a projectstatus of the worker node. The project status of the primary controlnode and the project status of the worker node may include a status ofone or more portions of a project being executed by the primary andworker nodes in the communications grid. The process may also includestoring the grid status information, as described in operation 504. Forexample, a control node (e.g., a backup control node) may store thereceived grid status information locally within the control node.Alternatively, the grid status information may be sent to another devicefor storage where the control node may have access to the information.

The process may also include receiving a failure communicationcorresponding to a node in the communications grid in operation 506. Forexample, a node may receive a failure communication including anindication that the primary control node has failed, prompting a backupcontrol node to take over for the primary control node. In analternative embodiment, a node may receive a failure that a worker nodehas failed, prompting a control node to reassign the work beingperformed by the worker node. The process may also include reassigning anode or a portion of the project being executed by the failed node, asdescribed in operation 508. For example, a control node may designatethe backup control node as a new primary control node based on thefailure communication upon receiving the failure communication. If thefailed node is a worker node, a control node may identify a projectstatus of the failed worker node using the snapshot of thecommunications grid, where the project status of the failed worker nodeincludes a status of a portion of the project being executed by thefailed worker node at the failure time.

The process may also include receiving updated grid status informationbased on the reassignment, as described in operation 510, andtransmitting a set of instructions based on the updated grid statusinformation to one or more nodes in the communications grid, asdescribed in operation 512. The updated grid status information mayinclude an updated project status of the primary control node or anupdated project status of the worker node. The updated information maybe transmitted to the other nodes in the grid to update their stalestored information.

FIG. 6 illustrates a portion of a communications grid computing system600 including a control node and a worker node, according to embodimentsof the present technology. Communications grid 600 computing systemincludes one control node (control node 602) and one worker node (workernode 610) for purposes of illustration, but may include more workerand/or control nodes. The control node 602 is communicatively connectedto worker node 610 via communication path 650. Therefore, control node602 may transmit information (e.g., related to the communications gridor notifications), to and receive information from worker node 610 viapath 650.

Similar to in FIG. 4, communications grid computing system (or just“communications grid”) 600 includes data processing nodes (control node602 and worker node 610). Nodes 602 and 610 include multi-core dataprocessors. Each node 602 and 610 includes a grid-enabled softwarecomponent (GESC) 620 that executes on the data processor associated withthat node and interfaces with buffer memory 622 also associated withthat node. Each node 602 and 610 includes a database management software(DBMS) 628 that executes on a database server (not shown) at controlnode 602 and on a database server (not shown) at worker node 610.

Each node also includes a data store 624. Data stores 624, similar tonetwork-attached data stores 110 in FIG. 1 and data stores 235 in FIG.2, are used to store data to be processed by the nodes in the computingenvironment. Data stores 624 may also store any intermediate or finaldata generated by the computing system after being processed, forexample in non-volatile memory. However in certain embodiments, theconfiguration of the grid computing environment allows its operations tobe performed such that intermediate and final data results can be storedsolely in volatile memory (e.g., RAM), without a requirement thatintermediate or final data results be stored to non-volatile types ofmemory. Storing such data in volatile memory may be useful in certainsituations, such as when the grid receives queries (e.g., ad hoc) from aclient and when responses, which are generated by processing largeamounts of data, need to be generated quickly or on-the-fly. In such asituation, the grid may be configured to retain the data within memoryso that responses can be generated at different levels of detail and sothat a client may interactively query against this information.

Each node also includes a user-defined function (UDF) 626. The UDFprovides a mechanism for the DBMS 628 to transfer data to or receivedata from the database stored in the data stores 624 that are managed bythe DBMS. For example, UDF 626 can be invoked by the DBMS to providedata to the GESC for processing. The UDF 626 may establish a socketconnection (not shown) with the GESC to transfer the data.Alternatively, the UDF 626 can transfer data to the GESC by writing datato shared memory accessible by both the UDF and the GESC.

The GESC 620 at the nodes 602 and 620 may be connected via a network,such as network 108 shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, nodes 602 and 620 cancommunicate with each other via the network using a predeterminedcommunication protocol such as, for example, the Message PassingInterface (MPI). Each GESC 620 can engage in point-to-pointcommunication with the GESC at another node or in collectivecommunication with multiple GESCs via the network. The GESC 620 at eachnode may contain identical (or nearly identical) software instructions.Each node may be capable of operating as either a control node or aworker node. The GESC at the control node 602 can communicate, over acommunication path 652, with a client device 630. More specifically,control node 602 may communicate with client application 632 hosted bythe client device 630 to receive queries and to respond to those queriesafter processing large amounts of data.

DBMS 628 may control the creation, maintenance, and use of database ordata structure (not shown) within a nodes 602 or 610. The database mayorganize data stored in data stores 624. The DBMS 628 at control node602 may accept requests for data and transfer the appropriate data forthe request. With such a process, collections of data may be distributedacross multiple physical locations. In this example, each node 602 and610 stores a portion of the total data managed by the management systemin its associated data store 624.

Furthermore, the DBMS may be responsible for protecting against dataloss using replication techniques. Replication includes providing abackup copy of data stored on one node on one or more other nodes.Therefore, if one node fails, the data from the failed node can berecovered from a replicated copy residing at another node. However, asdescribed herein with respect to FIG. 4, data or status information foreach node in the communications grid may also be shared with each nodeon the grid.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow chart showing an example method 700 forexecuting a project within a grid computing system, according toembodiments of the present technology. As described with respect to FIG.6, the GESC at the control node may transmit data with a client device(e.g., client device 630) to receive queries for executing a project andto respond to those queries after large amounts of data have beenprocessed. The query may be transmitted to the control node, where thequery may include a request for executing a project, as described inoperation 702. The query can contain instructions on the type of dataanalysis to be performed in the project and whether the project shouldbe executed using the grid-based computing environment, as shown inoperation 704.

To initiate the project, the control node may determine if the queryrequests use of the grid-based computing environment to execute theproject. If the determination is no, then the control node initiatesexecution of the project in a solo environment (e.g., at the controlnode), as described in operation 710. If the determination is yes, thecontrol node may initiate execution of the project in the grid-basedcomputing environment, as described in operation 706. In such asituation, the request may include a requested configuration of thegrid. For example, the request may include a number of control nodes anda number of worker nodes to be used in the grid when executing theproject. After the project has been completed, the control node maytransmit results of the analysis yielded by the grid, as described inoperation 708. Whether the project is executed in a solo or grid-basedenvironment, the control node provides the results of the project, asdescribed in operation 712.

As noted with respect to FIG. 2, the computing environments describedherein may collect data (e.g., as received from network devices, such assensors, such as network devices 204-209 in FIG. 2, and client devicesor other sources) to be processed as part of a data analytics project,and data may be received in real time as part of a streaming analyticsenvironment (e.g., ESP). Data may be collected using a variety ofsources as communicated via different kinds of networks or locally, suchas on a real-time streaming basis. For example, network devices mayreceive data periodically from network device sensors as the sensorscontinuously sense, monitor and track changes in their environments.More specifically, an increasing number of distributed applicationsdevelop or produce continuously flowing data from distributed sources byapplying queries to the data before distributing the data togeographically distributed recipients. An event stream processing engine(ESPE) may continuously apply the queries to the data as it is receivedand determines which entities should receive the data. Client or otherdevices may also subscribe to the ESPE or other devices processing ESPdata so that they can receive data after processing, based on forexample the entities determined by the processing engine. For example,client devices 230 in FIG. 2 may subscribe to the ESPE in computingenvironment 214. In another example, event subscription devices 1024a-c, described further with respect to FIG. 10, may also subscribe tothe ESPE. The ESPE may determine or define how input data or eventstreams from network devices or other publishers (e.g., network devices204-209 in FIG. 2) are transformed into meaningful output data to beconsumed by subscribers, such as for example client devices 230 in FIG.2.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram including components of an EventStream Processing Engine (ESPE), according to embodiments of the presenttechnology. ESPE 800 may include one or more projects 802. A project maybe described as a second-level container in an engine model managed byESPE 800 where a thread pool size for the project may be defined by auser. Each project of the one or more projects 802 may include one ormore continuous queries 804 that contain data flows, which are datatransformations of incoming event streams. The one or more continuousqueries 804 may include one or more source windows 806 and one or morederived windows 808.

The ESPE may receive streaming data over a period of time related tocertain events, such as events or other data sensed by one or morenetwork devices. The ESPE may perform operations associated withprocessing data created by the one or more devices. For example, theESPE may receive data from the one or more network devices 204-209 shownin FIG. 2. As noted, the network devices may include sensors that sensedifferent aspects of their environments, and may collect data over timebased on those sensed observations. For example, the ESPE may beimplemented within one or more of machines 220 and 240 shown in FIG. 2.The ESPE may be implemented within such a machine by an ESP application.An ESP application may embed an ESPE with its own dedicated thread poolor pools into its application space where the main application threadcan do application-specific work and the ESPE processes event streams atleast by creating an instance of a model into processing objects.

The engine container is the top-level container in a model that managesthe resources of the one or more projects 802. In an illustrativeembodiment, for example, there may be only one ESPE 800 for eachinstance of the ESP application, and ESPE 800 may have a unique enginename. Additionally, the one or more projects 802 may each have uniqueproject names, and each query may have a unique continuous query nameand begin with a uniquely named source window of the one or more sourcewindows 806. ESPE 800 may or may not be persistent.

Continuous query modeling involves defining directed graphs of windowsfor event stream manipulation and transformation. A window in thecontext of event stream manipulation and transformation is a processingnode in an event stream processing model. A window in a continuous querycan perform aggregations, computations, pattern-matching, and otheroperations on data flowing through the window. A continuous query may bedescribed as a directed graph of source, relational, pattern matching,and procedural windows. The one or more source windows 806 and the oneor more derived windows 808 represent continuously executing queriesthat generate updates to a query result set as new event blocks streamthrough ESPE 800. A directed graph, for example, is a set of nodesconnected by edges, where the edges have a direction associated withthem.

An event object may be described as a packet of data accessible as acollection of fields, with at least one of the fields defined as a keyor unique identifier (ID). The event object may be created using avariety of formats including binary, alphanumeric, XML, etc. Each eventobject may include one or more fields designated as a primary identifier(ID) for the event so ESPE 800 can support operation codes (opcodes) forevents including insert, update, upsert, and delete. Upsert opcodesupdate the event if the key field already exists; otherwise, the eventis inserted. For illustration, an event object may be a packed binaryrepresentation of a set of field values and include both metadata andfield data associated with an event. The metadata may include an opcodeindicating if the event represents an insert, update, delete, or upsert,a set of flags indicating if the event is a normal, partial-update, or aretention generated event from retention policy management, and a set ofmicrosecond timestamps that can be used for latency measurements.

An event block object may be described as a grouping or package of eventobjects. An event stream may be described as a flow of event blockobjects. A continuous query of the one or more continuous queries 804transforms a source event stream made up of streaming event blockobjects published into ESPE 800 into one or more output event streamsusing the one or more source windows 806 and the one or more derivedwindows 808. A continuous query can also be thought of as data flowmodeling.

The one or more source windows 806 are at the top of the directed graphand have no windows feeding into them. Event streams are published intothe one or more source windows 806, and from there, the event streamsmay be directed to the next set of connected windows as defined by thedirected graph. The one or more derived windows 808 are all instantiatedwindows that are not source windows and that have other windowsstreaming events into them. The one or more derived windows 808 mayperform computations or transformations on the incoming event streams.The one or more derived windows 808 transform event streams based on thewindow type (that is operators such as join, filter, compute, aggregate,copy, pattern match, procedural, union, etc.) and window settings. Asevent streams are published into ESPE 800, they are continuouslyqueried, and the resulting sets of derived windows in these queries arecontinuously updated.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flow chart showing an example process includingoperations performed by an event stream processing engine, according tosome embodiments of the present technology. As noted, the ESPE 800 (oran associated ESP application) defines how input event streams aretransformed into meaningful output event streams. More specifically, theESP application may define how input event streams from publishers(e.g., network devices providing sensed data) are transformed intomeaningful output event streams consumed by subscribers (e.g., a dataanalytics project being executed by a machine or set of machines).

Within the application, a user may interact with one or more userinterface windows presented to the user in a display under control ofthe ESPE independently or through a browser application in an orderselectable by the user. For example, a user may execute an ESPapplication, which causes presentation of a first user interface window,which may include a plurality of menus and selectors such as drop downmenus, buttons, text boxes, hyperlinks, etc. associated with the ESPapplication as understood by a person of skill in the art. As furtherunderstood by a person of skill in the art, various operations may beperformed in parallel, for example, using a plurality of threads.

At operation 900, an ESP application may define and start an ESPE,thereby instantiating an ESPE at a device, such as machine 220 and/or240. In an operation 902, the engine container is created. Forillustration, ESPE 800 may be instantiated using a function call thatspecifies the engine container as a manager for the model.

In an operation 904, the one or more continuous queries 804 areinstantiated by ESPE 800 as a model. The one or more continuous queries804 may be instantiated with a dedicated thread pool or pools thatgenerate updates as new events stream through ESPE 800. Forillustration, the one or more continuous queries 804 may be created tomodel business processing logic within ESPE 800, to predict eventswithin ESPE 800, to model a physical system within ESPE 800, to predictthe physical system state within ESPE 800, etc. For example, as noted,ESPE 800 may be used to support sensor data monitoring and management(e.g., sensing may include force, torque, load, strain, position,temperature, air pressure, fluid flow, chemical properties, resistance,electromagnetic fields, radiation, irradiance, proximity, acoustics,moisture, distance, speed, vibrations, acceleration, electricalpotential, or electrical current, etc.).

ESPE 800 may analyze and process events in motion or “event streams.”Instead of storing data and running queries against the stored data,ESPE 800 may store queries and stream data through them to allowcontinuous analysis of data as it is received. The one or more sourcewindows 806 and the one or more derived windows 808 may be created basedon the relational, pattern matching, and procedural algorithms thattransform the input event streams into the output event streams tomodel, simulate, score, test, predict, etc. based on the continuousquery model defined and application to the streamed data.

In an operation 906, a publish/subscribe (pub/sub) capability isinitialized for ESPE 800. In an illustrative embodiment, a pub/subcapability is initialized for each project of the one or more projects802. To initialize and enable pub/sub capability for ESPE 800, a portnumber may be provided. Pub/sub clients can use a host name of an ESPdevice running the ESPE and the port number to establish pub/subconnections to ESPE 800.

FIG. 10 illustrates an ESP system 1000 interfacing between publishingdevice 1022 and event subscribing devices 1024 a-c, according toembodiments of the present technology. ESP system 1000 may include ESPdevice or subsystem 851, event publishing device 1022, an eventsubscribing device A 1024 a, an event subscribing device B 1024 b, andan event subscribing device C 1024 c. Input event streams are output toESP device 851 by publishing device 1022. In alternative embodiments,the input event streams may be created by a plurality of publishingdevices. The plurality of publishing devices further may publish eventstreams to other ESP devices. The one or more continuous queriesinstantiated by ESPE 800 may analyze and process the input event streamsto form output event streams output to event subscribing device A 1024a, event subscribing device B 1024 b, and event subscribing device C1024 c. ESP system 1000 may include a greater or a fewer number of eventsubscribing devices of event subscribing devices.

Publish-subscribe is a message-oriented interaction paradigm based onindirect addressing. Processed data recipients specify their interest inreceiving information from ESPE 800 by subscribing to specific classesof events, while information sources publish events to ESPE 800 withoutdirectly addressing the receiving parties. ESPE 800 coordinates theinteractions and processes the data. In some cases, the data sourcereceives confirmation that the published information has been receivedby a data recipient.

A publish/subscribe API may be described as a library that enables anevent publisher, such as publishing device 1022, to publish eventstreams into ESPE 800 or an event subscriber, such as event subscribingdevice A 1024 a, event subscribing device B 1024 b, and eventsubscribing device C 1024 c, to subscribe to event streams from ESPE800. For illustration, one or more publish/subscribe APIs may bedefined. Using the publish/subscribe API, an event publishingapplication may publish event streams into a running event streamprocessor project source window of ESPE 800, and the event subscriptionapplication may subscribe to an event stream processor project sourcewindow of ESPE 800.

The publish/subscribe API provides cross-platform connectivity andendianness compatibility between ESP application and other networkedapplications, such as event publishing applications instantiated atpublishing device 1022, and event subscription applications instantiatedat one or more of event subscribing device A 1024 a, event subscribingdevice B 1024 b, and event subscribing device C 1024 c.

Referring back to FIG. 9, operation 906 initializes thepublish/subscribe capability of ESPE 800. In an operation 908, the oneor more projects 802 are started. The one or more started projects mayrun in the background on an ESP device. In an operation 910, an eventblock object is received from one or more computing device of the eventpublishing device 1022.

ESP subsystem 800 may include a publishing client 1002, ESPE 800, asubscribing client A 1004, a subscribing client B 1006, and asubscribing client C 1008. Publishing client 1002 may be started by anevent publishing application executing at publishing device 1022 usingthe publish/subscribe API. Subscribing client A 1004 may be started byan event subscription application A, executing at event subscribingdevice A 1024 a using the publish/subscribe API. Subscribing client B1006 may be started by an event subscription application B executing atevent subscribing device B 1024 b using the publish/subscribe API.Subscribing client C 1008 may be started by an event subscriptionapplication C executing at event subscribing device C 1024 c using thepublish/subscribe API.

An event block object containing one or more event objects is injectedinto a source window of the one or more source windows 806 from aninstance of an event publishing application on event publishing device1022. The event block object may generated, for example, by the eventpublishing application and may be received by publishing client 1002. Aunique ID may be maintained as the event block object is passed betweenthe one or more source windows 806 and/or the one or more derivedwindows 808 of ESPE 800, and to subscribing client A 1004, subscribingclient B 1006, and subscribing client C 1008 and to event subscriptiondevice A 1024 a, event subscription device B 1024 b, and eventsubscription device C 1024 c. Publishing client 1002 may furthergenerate and include a unique embedded transaction ID in the event blockobject as the event block object is processed by a continuous query, aswell as the unique ID that publishing device 1022 assigned to the eventblock object.

In an operation 912, the event block object is processed through the oneor more continuous queries 804. In an operation 914, the processed eventblock object is output to one or more computing devices of the eventsubscribing devices 1024 a-c. For example, subscribing client A 1004,subscribing client B 1006, and subscribing client C 1008 may send thereceived event block object to event subscription device A 1024 a, eventsubscription device B 1024 b, and event subscription device C 1024 c,respectively.

ESPE 800 maintains the event block containership aspect of the receivedevent blocks from when the event block is published into a source windowand works its way through the directed graph defined by the one or morecontinuous queries 804 with the various event translations before beingoutput to subscribers. Subscribers can correlate a group of subscribedevents back to a group of published events by comparing the unique ID ofthe event block object that a publisher, such as publishing device 1022,attached to the event block object with the event block ID received bythe subscriber.

In an operation 916, a determination is made concerning whether or notprocessing is stopped. If processing is not stopped, processingcontinues in operation 910 to continue receiving the one or more eventstreams containing event block objects from the, for example, one ormore network devices. If processing is stopped, processing continues inan operation 918. In operation 918, the started projects are stopped. Inoperation 920, the ESPE is shutdown.

As noted, in some embodiments, big data is processed for an analyticsproject after the data is received and stored. In other embodiments,distributed applications process continuously flowing data in real-timefrom distributed sources by applying queries to the data beforedistributing the data to geographically distributed recipients. Asnoted, an event stream processing engine (ESPE) may continuously applythe queries to the data as it is received and determines which entitiesreceive the processed data. This allows for large amounts of data beingreceived and/or collected in a variety of environments to be processedand distributed in real time. For example, as shown with respect to FIG.2, data may be collected from network devices that may include deviceswithin the internet of things, such as devices within a home automationnetwork. However, such data may be collected from a variety of differentresources in a variety of different environments. In any such situation,embodiments of the present technology allow for real-time processing ofsuch data.

Aspects of the current disclosure provide technical solutions totechnical problems, such as computing problems that arise when an ESPdevice fails which results in a complete service interruption andpotentially significant data loss. The data loss can be catastrophicwhen the streamed data is supporting mission critical operations such asthose in support of an ongoing manufacturing or drilling operation. Anembodiment of an ESP system achieves a rapid and seamless failover ofESPE running at the plurality of ESP devices without serviceinterruption or data loss, thus significantly improving the reliabilityof an operational system that relies on the live or real-time processingof the data streams. The event publishing systems, the event subscribingsystems, and each ESPE not executing at a failed ESP device are notaware of or effected by the failed ESP device. The ESP system mayinclude thousands of event publishing systems and event subscribingsystems. The ESP system keeps the failover logic and awareness withinthe boundaries of out-messaging network connector and out-messagingnetwork device.

In one example embodiment, a system is provided to support a failoverwhen event stream processing (ESP) event blocks. The system includes,but is not limited to, an out-messaging network device and a computingdevice. The computing device includes, but is not limited to, aprocessor and a computer-readable medium operably coupled to theprocessor. The processor is configured to execute an ESP engine (ESPE).The computer-readable medium has instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the computing device to support thefailover. An event block object is received from the ESPE that includesa unique identifier. A first status of the computing device as active orstandby is determined. When the first status is active, a second statusof the computing device as newly active or not newly active isdetermined. Newly active is determined when the computing device isswitched from a standby status to an active status. When the secondstatus is newly active, a last published event block object identifierthat uniquely identifies a last published event block object isdetermined. A next event block object is selected from a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium accessible by the computing device. The nextevent block object has an event block object identifier that is greaterthan the determined last published event block object identifier. Theselected next event block object is published to an out-messagingnetwork device. When the second status of the computing device is notnewly active, the received event block object is published to theout-messaging network device. When the first status of the computingdevice is standby, the received event block object is stored in thenon-transitory computer-readable medium.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart of an example of a process for generating andusing a machine-learning model according to some aspects. Machinelearning is a branch of artificial intelligence that relates tomathematical models that can learn from, categorize, and makepredictions about data. Such mathematical models, which can be referredto as machine-learning models, can classify input data among two or moreclasses; cluster input data among two or more groups; predict a resultbased on input data; identify patterns or trends in input data; identifya distribution of input data in a space; or any combination of these.Examples of machine-learning models can include (i) neural networks;(ii) decision trees, such as classification trees and regression trees;(iii) classifiers, such as Naïve bias classifiers, logistic regressionclassifiers, ridge regression classifiers, random forest classifiers,least absolute shrinkage and selector (LASSO) classifiers, and supportvector machines; (iv) clusterers, such as k-means clusterers, mean-shiftclusterers, and spectral clusterers; (v) factorizers, such asfactorization machines, principal component analyzers and kernelprincipal component analyzers; and (vi) ensembles or other combinationsof machine-learning models. In some examples, neural networks caninclude deep neural networks, feed-forward neural networks, recurrentneural networks, convolutional neural networks, radial basis function(RBF) neural networks, echo state neural networks, long short-termmemory neural networks, bi-directional recurrent neural networks, gatedneural networks, hierarchical recurrent neural networks, stochasticneural networks, modular neural networks, spiking neural networks,dynamic neural networks, cascading neural networks, neuro-fuzzy neuralnetworks, or any combination of these.

Different machine-learning models may be used interchangeably to performa task. Examples of tasks that can be performed at least partially usingmachine-learning models include various types of scoring;bioinformatics; cheminformatics; software engineering; fraud detection;customer segmentation; generating online recommendations; adaptivewebsites; determining customer lifetime value; search engines; placingadvertisements in real time or near real time; classifying DNAsequences; affective computing; performing natural language processingand understanding; object recognition and computer vision; roboticlocomotion; playing games; optimization and metaheuristics; detectingnetwork intrusions; medical diagnosis and monitoring; or predicting whenan asset, such as a machine, will need maintenance.

Any number and combination of tools can be used to createmachine-learning models. Examples of tools for creating and managingmachine-learning models can include SAS® Enterprise Miner, SAS® RapidPredictive Modeler, and SAS® Model Manager, SAS Cloud Analytic Services(CAS)®, SAS Viya® of all which are by SAS Institute Inc. of Cary, N.C.

Machine-learning models can be constructed through an at least partiallyautomated (e.g., with little or no human involvement) process calledtraining. During training, input data can be iteratively supplied to amachine-learning model to enable the machine-learning model to identifypatterns related to the input data or to identify relationships betweenthe input data and output data. With training, the machine-learningmodel can be transformed from an untrained state to a trained state.Input data can be split into one or more training sets and one or morevalidation sets, and the training process may be repeated multipletimes. The splitting may follow a k-fold cross-validation rule, aleave-one-out-rule, a leave-p-out rule, or a holdout rule. An overviewof training and using a machine-learning model is described below withrespect to the flow chart of FIG. 11.

In block 1104, training data is received. In some examples, the trainingdata is received from a remote database or a local database, constructedfrom various subsets of data, or input by a user. The training data canbe used in its raw form for training a machine-learning model orpre-processed into another form, which can then be used for training themachine-learning model. For example, the raw form of the training datacan be smoothed, truncated, aggregated, clustered, or otherwisemanipulated into another form, which can then be used for training themachine-learning model.

In block 1106, a machine-learning model is trained using the trainingdata. The machine-learning model can be trained in a supervised,unsupervised, or semi-supervised manner In supervised training, eachinput in the training data is correlated to a desired output. Thisdesired output may be a scalar, a vector, or a different type of datastructure such as text or an image. This may enable the machine-learningmodel to learn a mapping between the inputs and desired outputs. Inunsupervised training, the training data includes inputs, but notdesired outputs, so that the machine-learning model has to findstructure in the inputs on its own. In semi-supervised training, onlysome of the inputs in the training data are correlated to desiredoutputs.

In block 1108, the machine-learning model is evaluated. For example, anevaluation dataset can be obtained, for example, via user input or froma database. The evaluation dataset can include inputs correlated todesired outputs. The inputs can be provided to the machine-learningmodel and the outputs from the machine-learning model can be compared tothe desired outputs. If the outputs from the machine-learning modelclosely correspond with the desired outputs, the machine-learning modelmay have a high degree of accuracy. For example, if 90% or more of theoutputs from the machine-learning model are the same as the desiredoutputs in the evaluation dataset, the machine-learning model may have ahigh degree of accuracy. Otherwise, the machine-learning model may havea low degree of accuracy. The 90% number is an example only. A realisticand desirable accuracy percentage is dependent on the problem and thedata.

In some examples, if the machine-learning model has an inadequate degreeof accuracy for a particular task, the process can return to block 1106,where the machine-learning model can be further trained using additionaltraining data or otherwise modified to improve accuracy. If themachine-learning model has an adequate degree of accuracy for theparticular task, the process can continue to block 1110.

In block 1110, new data is received. In some examples, the new data isreceived from a remote database or a local database, constructed fromvarious subsets of data, or input by a user. The new data may be unknownto the machine-learning model. For example, the machine-learning modelmay not have previously processed or analyzed the new data.

In block 1112, the trained machine-learning model is used to analyze thenew data and provide a result. For example, the new data can be providedas input to the trained machine-learning model. The trainedmachine-learning model can analyze the new data and provide a resultthat includes a classification of the new data into a particular class,a clustering of the new data into a particular group, a prediction basedon the new data, or any combination of these.

In block 1114, the result is post-processed. For example, the result canbe added to, multiplied with, or otherwise combined with other data aspart of a job. As another example, the result can be transformed from afirst format, such as a time series format, into another format, such asa count series format. Any number and combination of operations can beperformed on the result during post-processing.

A more specific example of a machine-learning model is the neuralnetwork 1200 shown in FIG. 12. The neural network 1200 is represented asmultiple layers of interconnected neurons, such as neuron 1208, that canexchange data between one another. The layers include an input layer1202 for receiving input data, a hidden layer 1204, and an output layer1206 for providing a result. The hidden layer 1204 is referred to ashidden because it may not be directly observable or have its inputdirectly accessible during the normal functioning of the neural network1200. Although the neural network 1200 is shown as having a specificnumber of layers and neurons for exemplary purposes, the neural network1200 can have any number and combination of layers, and each layer canhave any number and combination of neurons.

The neurons and connections between the neurons can have numericweights, which can be tuned during training. For example, training datacan be provided to the input layer 1202 of the neural network 1200, andthe neural network 1200 can use the training data to tune one or morenumeric weights of the neural network 1200. In some examples, the neuralnetwork 1200 can be trained using backpropagation. Backpropagation caninclude determining a gradient of a particular numeric weight based on adifference between an actual output of the neural network 1200 and adesired output of the neural network 1200. Based on the gradient, one ormore numeric weights of the neural network 1200 can be updated to reducethe difference, thereby increasing the accuracy of the neural network1200. This process can be repeated multiple times to train the neuralnetwork 1200. For example, this process can be repeated hundreds orthousands of times to train the neural network 1200.

In some examples, the neural network 1200 is a feed-forward neuralnetwork. In a feed-forward neural network, every neuron only propagatesan output value to a subsequent layer of the neural network 1200. Forexample, data may only move one direction (forward) from one neuron tothe next neuron in a feed-forward neural network.

In other examples, the neural network 1200 is a recurrent neuralnetwork. A recurrent neural network can include one or more feedbackloops, allowing data to propagate in both forward and backward throughthe neural network 1200. This can allow for information to persistwithin the recurrent neural network. For example, a recurrent neuralnetwork can determine an output based at least partially on informationthat the recurrent neural network has seen before, giving the recurrentneural network the ability to use previous input to inform the output.

In some examples, the neural network 1200 operates by receiving a vectorof numbers from one layer; transforming the vector of numbers into a newvector of numbers using a matrix of numeric weights, a nonlinearity, orboth; and providing the new vector of numbers to a subsequent layer ofthe neural network 1200. Each subsequent layer of the neural network1200 can repeat this process until the neural network 1200 outputs afinal result at the output layer 1206. For example, the neural network1200 can receive a vector of numbers as an input at the input layer1202. The neural network 1200 can multiply the vector of numbers by amatrix of numeric weights to determine a weighted vector. The matrix ofnumeric weights can be tuned during the training of the neural network1200. The neural network 1200 can transform the weighted vector using anonlinearity, such as a sigmoid tangent or the hyperbolic tangent. Insome examples, the nonlinearity can include a rectified linear unit,which can be expressed using the equation y=max(x, 0) where y is theoutput and x is an input value from the weighted vector. The transformedoutput can be supplied to a subsequent layer, such as the hidden layer1204, of the neural network 1200. The subsequent layer of the neuralnetwork 1200 can receive the transformed output, multiply thetransformed output by a matrix of numeric weights and a nonlinearity,and provide the result to yet another layer of the neural network 1200.This process continues until the neural network 1200 outputs a finalresult at the output layer 1206.

Other examples of the present disclosure may include any number andcombination of machine-learning models having any number and combinationof characteristics. The machine-learning model(s) can be trained in asupervised, semi-supervised, or unsupervised manner, or any combinationof these. The machine-learning model(s) can be implemented using asingle computing device or multiple computing devices, such as thecommunications grid computing system 400 discussed above.

Implementing some examples of the present disclosure at least in part byusing machine-learning models can reduce the total number of processingiterations, time, memory, electrical power, or any combination of theseconsumed by a computing device when analyzing data. For example, aneural network may more readily identify patterns in data than otherapproaches. This may enable the neural network to analyze the data usingfewer processing cycles and less memory than other approaches, whileobtaining a similar or greater level of accuracy.

Some machine-learning approaches may be more efficiently and speedilyexecuted and processed with machine-learning specific processors (e.g.,not a generic CPU). Such processors may also provide an energy savingswhen compared to generic CPUs. For example, some of these processors caninclude a graphical processing unit (GPU), an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), anartificial intelligence (AI) accelerator, a neural computing core, aneural computing engine, a neural processing unit, a purpose-built chiparchitecture for deep learning, and/or some other machine-learningspecific processor that implements a machine learning approach or one ormore neural networks using semiconductor (e.g., silicon (Si), galliumarsenide (GaAs)) devices. These processors may also be employed inheterogeneous computing architectures with a number of and a variety ofdifferent types of cores, engines, nodes, and/or layers to achievevarious energy efficiencies, processing speed improvements, datacommunication speed improvements, and/or data efficiency targets andimprovements throughout various parts of the system when compared to ahomogeneous computing architecture that employs CPUs for general purposecomputing.

FIG. 13A is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a distributedprocessing system 2000 incorporating one or more source devices 2100,one or more reviewing devices 2800, one or more federated devices 2500that may form a federated device grid 2005, and/or one or more storagedevices 2600 that may form a storage device grid 2006. FIG. 13Billustrates exchanges, through a network 2999, of communications amongthe devices 2100, 2500, 2600 and/or 2800 associated with the controlledstorage of and/or access to various objects within one or more federatedareas 2566, and/or the performance of job flows of analyses associatedtherewith. FIG. 13C illustrates embodiments in which such exchanges areperformed in response to requests from the devices 2100 and/or 2800.FIG. 13D illustrates embodiments in which such exchanges are performedas part of a pre-arranged synchronization of storage spaces among thedevices 2100, 2500, 2600 and/or 2800. FIGS. 13E-G illustrate variousembodiments of the manner in which such objects may be caused to bestored as a result of such exchanges.

Referring to both FIGS. 13A and 13B, communications among the devices2100, 2500, 2600 and/or 2800 may include the exchange of objects for theperformance of job flows, such as job flow definitions 2220, directedacyclic graphs (DAGs) 2270, data sets 2330 and/or 2370, task routines2440, macros 2470 and/or result reports 2770. The purposes for suchexchanges may be simply to store such objects within one or morefederated areas 2566 and/or to retrieve such objects therefrom, and/orto trigger performances of job flows using such objects. However, one ormore of the devices 2100, 2500, 2600 and/or 2800 may also exchange, viathe network 2999, other data entirely unrelated to any object storedwithin any federated area 2566. In various embodiments, the network 2999may be a single network that may extend within a single building orother relatively limited area, a combination of connected networks thatmay extend a considerable distance, and/or may include the Internet.Thus, the network 2999 may be based on any of a variety (or combination)of communications technologies by which communications may be effected,including without limitation, wired technologies employing electricallyand/or optically conductive cabling, and wireless technologies employinginfrared, radio frequency (RF) or other forms of wireless transmission.

In various embodiments, each of the one or more source devices 2100 mayincorporate one or more of an input device 2110, a display 2180, aprocessor 2150, a storage 2160 and a network interface 2190 to coupleeach of the one or more source devices 2100 to the network 2999. Thestorage 2160 may store a control routine 2140, one or more job flowdefinitions 2220, one or more DAGs 2270, one or more data sets 2330, oneor more task routines 2440 and/or one or more macros 2470. The controlroutine 2140 may incorporate a sequence of instructions operative on theprocessor 2150 of each of the one or more source devices 2100 toimplement logic to perform various functions. In embodiments in whichmultiple ones of the source devices 2100 are operated together as a gridof the source devices 2100, the sequence of instructions of the controlroutine 2140 may be operative on the processor 2150 of each of thosesource devices 2100 to perform various functions at least partially inparallel with the processors 2150 of others of the source devices 2100.

In some embodiments, one or more of the source devices 2100 may beoperated by persons and/or entities (e.g., scholastic entities,governmental entities, business entities, etc.) to generate and/ormaintain analysis routines, that when executed by one or moreprocessors, causes an analysis of data to be performed. In suchembodiments, execution of the control routine 2140 may cause theprocessor 2150 to operate the input device 2110 and/or the display 2180to provide a user interface (UI) by which an operator of the sourcedevice 2100 may use the source device 2100 to develop such analysisroutines and/or to test their functionality by causing the processor2150 to execute such routines. As will be explained in greater detail, arule imposed in connection with such use of a federated area 2566 may bethat routines to be stored and/or executed therein are required to bedivided up into a combination of a set of objects, including a set oftask routines 2440 and a job flow definition 2220. Each of the taskroutines 2440 performs a distinct task, and the job flow definition 2220defines the analysis to be performed as a job flow as a combination oftasks to be performed in a particular order through the execution of theset of task routines 2440 in that particular order to thereby performthe job flow. Thus, the source device 2100 may be used in generatingsuch objects which may then be stored within one or more federated areas2566.

The tasks that each of the task routines 2440 may cause a processor toperform may include any of a variety of data analysis tasks, datatransformation tasks and/or data normalization tasks. The data analysistasks may include, and are not limited to, searches and/or statisticalanalyses that entail derivation of approximations, numericalcharacterizations, models, evaluations of hypotheses, and/or predictions(e.g., a prediction by Bayesian analysis of actions of a crowd trying toescape a burning building, or of the behavior of bridge components inresponse to a wind forces). The data transformation tasks may include,and are not limited to, sorting, row and/or column-based mathematicaloperations, row and/or column-based filtering using one or more dataitems of a row or column, and/or reordering data items within a dataobject. The data normalization tasks may include, and are not limitedto, normalizing times of day, dates, monetary values (e.g., normalizingto a single unit of currency), character spacing, use of delimitercharacters (e.g., normalizing use of periods and commas in numericvalues), use of formatting codes, use of big or little Endian encoding,use or lack of use of sign bits, quantities of bits used to representintegers and/or floating point values (e.g., bytes, words, doublewordsor quadwords), etc.

In some embodiments, the UI provided by one or more of the sourcedevices 2100 may take the form of a touch-sensitive device paired with astylus that serves to enable sketch input by an operator of a sourcedevice 2100. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, this mayentail the combining of the display 2180 and the input device 2110 intoa single UI device that is able to provide visual feedback to theoperator of the successful sketch entry of visual tokens and of text.Through such sketch input, the operator may specify aspects of a GUIthat is to be provided during a performance of a job flow to provide aneasier and more intuitive user interface by which a user may provideinput needed for the performance of that job flow. Following recognitionand interpretation of the visual tokens and/or text within the sketchinput, a set of executable GUI instructions to implement the GUI may bestored as part of a job flow definition 2220 for such a job flow.

In some embodiments, one or more of the source devices 2100 may,alternatively or additionally, serve to assemble one or more flow inputdata sets 2330. In such embodiments, execution of the control routine2140 by the processor 2150 may cause the processor 2150 to operate thenetwork interface 2190, the input device 2110 and/or one or more othercomponents (not shown) to receive data items and to assemble thosereceived data items into one or more of the data sets 2330. By way ofexample, one or more of the source devices 2100 may incorporate and/orbe in communication with one or more sensors to receive data itemsassociated with the monitoring of natural phenomena (e.g., geological ormeteorological events) and/or with the performance of a scientific orother variety of experiment (e.g., a thermal camera or sensors disposedabout a particle accelerator). By way of another example, the processor2150 of one or more of the source devices 2100 may be caused by itsexecution of the control routine 2140 to operate the network interface2190 to await transmissions via the network 2999 from one or more otherdevices providing at least at portion of at least one data set 2330.

Regardless of the exact manner in which flow input data sets 2330 aregenerated, each flow input data set 2330 may include any of a widevariety of types of data associated with any of a wide variety ofsubjects. By way of example, each flow input data set 2330 may includescientific observation data concerning geological and/or meteorologicalevents, or from sensors employed in laboratory experiments in areas suchas particle physics. By way of another example, the each flow input dataset 2330 may include indications of activities performed by a randomsample of individuals of a population of people in a selected country ormunicipality, or of a population of a threatened species under study inthe wild.

In various embodiments, each of the one or more reviewing devices 2800may incorporate one or more of an input device 2810, a display 2880, aprocessor 2850, a storage 2860 and a network interface 2890 to coupleeach of the one or more reviewing devices 2800 to the network 2999. Thestorage 2860 may store a control routine 2840, one or more DAGs 2270,one or more data sets 2370, one or more macros 2470, one or moreinstance logs 2720, and/or one or more result reports 2770. The controlroutine 2840 may incorporate a sequence of instructions operative on theprocessor 2850 of each of the one or more reviewing devices 2800 toimplement logic to perform various functions. In embodiments in whichmultiple ones of the reviewing devices 2800 are operated together as agrid of the reviewing devices 2800, the sequence of instructions of thecontrol routine 2840 may be operative on the processor 2850 of each ofthose reviewing devices 2800 to perform various functions at leastpartially in parallel with the processors 2850 of others of thereviewing devices 2800.

In some embodiments, one or more of the reviewing devices 2800 may beoperated by persons and/or entities (e.g., scholastic entities,governmental entities, business entities, etc.) to utilize and/orperform reviews of analysis routines that have been stored in one ormore federated areas 2566 as a set of objects, such as a set of taskroutines 2440 and a job flow definition 2220. In such embodiments,execution of the control routine 2840 may cause the processor 2850 tooperate the input device 2810 and/or the display 2880 to provide a userinterface by which an operator of the reviewing device 2800 may use thereviewing device 2800 to view result reports 2770 and/or instance logs2720 generated by new and/or past performances of job flows.Alternatively, an operator of the reviewing device 2800 may use thereviewing device 2800 to audit aspects of new and/or past performancesof job flows, including selections of flow input data sets 2330 used,selections of task routines 2440 used, and/or mid-flow data sets 2370that were generated and exchanged between task routines 2440, as well asviewing result reports 2770 and/or instance logs 2720. By way ofexample, the operator of one of the reviewing devices 2800 may beassociated with a scholastic, governmental or business entity that seeksto review a performance of a job flow of an analysis that was created byanother entity. Such a review may be a peer review between two or moreentities involved in scientific or other research, and may be focused onconfirming assumptions on which algorithms were based and/or thecorrectness of the performance of those algorithms. Alternatively, sucha review may be part of an inspection by a government agency into thequality of the analyses performed by and relied upon by a business inmaking decisions and/or assessing its own financial soundness, and mayseek to confirm whether correct legally required calculations were used.

In various embodiments, each of the one or more federated devices 2500may incorporate one or more of a processor 2550, a storage 2560, one ormore neuromorphic devices 2570, and a network interface 2590 to coupleeach of the one or more federated devices 2500 to the network 2999. Thestorage 2560 may store a control routine 2540. In some embodiments, partof the storage 2560 may be allocated for at least a portion of one ormore federated areas 2566. In other embodiments, each of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may incorporate and/or be coupled to one or morestorage devices 2600 within which storage space may be allocated for atleast a portion of one or more federated areas 2566 in addition to or inlieu of storage space within the storage(s) 2560 being so allocated.

More precisely, some embodiments of the distributed processing system2000 may not include the one or more storage devices 2600, at all, andthe one or more federated areas 2566 may be defined entirely within thestorage(s) 2560 of the one or more federated devices 2500. Otherembodiments of the distributed processing system 2000 may include theone or more storage devices 2600 as storage peripherals (e.g., one ormore hard drives) and/or network-attached storage (NAS) device(s) thatmay be coupled to the one or more federated devices 2500, and the one ormore federated devices 2500 may operate the one or more storage devices2600 as additional storage in which the one or more federated areas 2566may be defined. In still other embodiments, each of the one or morestorage devices 2600 may be an independent computing deviceincorporating its own processor 2650 and storage 2660 coupled to theprocessor 2650 (depicted in FIGS. 13E-F), and may be capable of servingthe function of maintaining the one or more federated areas 2566 (underthe control of the one or more federated devices 2500), and/or servingthe function of employing its own processing resources to perform jobflows in addition to or in lieu of the processing resources of the oneor more federated devices 2500 being employed to do so.

Regardless of where storage space is allocated for one or more federatedareas 2566, each of the one or more federated areas 2566 may hold one ormore objects such as one or more job flow definitions 2220, one or moreDAGs 2270, one or more flow input data sets 2330, one or more taskroutines 2440, one or more macros 2470, one or more instance logs 2720,and/or one or more result reports 2770. In embodiments in which a jobflow is performed by the one or more federated devices 2500 (or by theone or more storage devices 2600) within a federated area 2566, such afederated area 2566 may at least temporarily hold one or more mid-flowdata sets 2370 during times when one or more of the mid-flow data sets2370 are generated by and exchanged between task routines 2440 duringthe performance of the job flow. In embodiments in which a DAG 2270 isgenerated by the one or more federated devices 2500 within a federatedarea 2566 to provide a visualization of aspects of a job flow, aparticular performance of a job flow and/or one or more task routines2440, such a federated area 2566 may at least temporarily hold one ormore macros 2470 during times when one or more of the macros 2470 aregenerated as part of generating the DAG 2270.

In some embodiments that include the one or more storage devices 2600 inaddition to the one or more federated devices 2500, the maintenance ofthe one or more federated areas 2566 within such separate and distinctstorage devices 2600 may be part of an approach of specializationbetween the federated devices 2500 and the storage devices 2600. Morespecifically, there may be numerous ones of the federated devices 2500forming the grid 2005 in which each of the federated devices 2500 mayincorporate processing and/or other resources selected to better enablethe execution of task routines 2440 as part of performing job flowsdefined by the job flow definitions 2220, the generation of DAGs 2270,and/or other processing functions associated with developing, performingand/or analyzing aspects of job flows. Correspondingly, there may benumerous ones of the storage devices 2600 forming the grid 2006 in whichthe storage devices 2600 may be organized and interconnected in a mannerproviding a distributed storage system that may provide increased speedof access to objects within each of the one or more federated areas 2566through parallelism, and/or may provide fault tolerance of storage. Suchdistributed storage may also be deemed desirable to better accommodatethe storage of particularly large ones of the data sets 2330 and/or2370, as well as any particularly large data sets that may beincorporated into one or more of the result reports 2770.

However, as an alternative to such a division of functions between thedevices 2500 and 2600, or as an augmentation thereto, and even if theone or more federated devices 2500 incorporate considerably more and/orbetter suited processing resources, it may be deemed desirable for theone or more storage devices 2600 to perform at least a subset of the jobflows. As previously explained, it may be that a data object (e.g., adata set 2330 or 2370, or a result report 2770) is received by the oneor more federated devices 2500 that is of sufficient size thatexchanging it among the devices 2500 and 2600 for use as an input toperforming a job flow is deemed to be undesirable due to the amount ofoverhead that would be incurred in doing so (e.g., consumption of timeand various resources). In such instances, it may be deemed desirable toutilize the processing resources of the one or more storage devices 2600to perform such a job flow so that such a large data object may be usedas an input thereto without exchanging portions of it (or all of it)among devices. Indeed, the overhead of moving such a data object to theone or more federated devices 2500 may be significant enough as tooutweigh whatever advantages in processing speed and/or efficiency thatthe processing resources of the one or more federated devices 2500 wouldprovide over using the processing resources of the one or more storagedevices 2600.

The control routine 2540 may incorporate a sequence of instructionsoperative on the processor 2550 of each of the one or more federateddevices 2500 to implement logic to perform various functions. Inembodiments in which multiple ones of the federated devices 2500 areoperated together as the grid 2005 of the federated devices 2500, thesequence of instructions of the control routine 2540 may be operative onthe processor 2550 of each of the federated devices 2500 to performvarious functions at least partially in parallel with the processors2550 of others of the federated devices 2500. As will be described ingreater detail, among such functions may be the at least partiallyparallel performance of job flows defined by one or more of the job flowdefinitions 2220, which may include the at least partially parallelexecution of one or more of the task routines 2440 to perform tasksspecified by the one or more job flow definitions 2220. As will also bedescribed in greater detail, also among such functions may be theoperation of the one or more neuromorphic devices 2570 to instantiate,develop and/or utilize one or more neural networks, or one or moreneural network ensembles, to enable neuromorphic processing to beemployed in the performance of one or more tasks and/or job flows. Wheresuch functions are performed, one or more data sets 2330 and/or 2370that include hyperparameters and/or trained parameters of one or moreneural networks may be generated, analyzed, modified and/or transferredas a result of the performances of those functions.

Turning to FIG. 13C, as depicted, the control routine 2540 may include afederated area component 2546 to cause the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 to maintain the one or more federatedareas 2566 within the storage 2560 of each of the one or more federateddevices 2500 and/or within the one or more storage devices 2600. Many ofthe operations that the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may be caused to perform by execution of the controlroutine 2540, including the instantiation, maintenance and/orun-instantiation of the one or more federated areas 2566, may be inresponse to requests received via the network 2999 from the one or moresource devices 2100 and/or from the one or more reviewing devices 2800.Also, many of such received requests may entail the exchange of one ormore objects.

As also depicted, the control routine 2540 may also include a portalcomponent 2549 to cause the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 to limit access to the one or more federatedareas 2566 to particular authorized persons and/or particular authorizeddevices that may be associated with one or more particular corporate,governmental, scholastic and/or other types of entities.Correspondingly, the processor(s) 2150 of the one or more source devices2100 may be caused by execution of the control routine 2140 to provide aUI that enables an operator thereof to send such requests to the one ormore federated devices 2500, and/or the processor(s) 2850 of the one ormore reviewing devices 2800 may be caused by execution of the controlroutine 2840 to provide a UI that enables an operator thereof to do so.The processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may becaused by the portal component 2549 to cooperate, via the network 2999,with the requesting device 2100 or 2800 to cause the UI provided therebyto present the operator thereof with a request for a password or othersecurity credential to verify that the operator and/or the requestingdevice 2100 or 2800 is authorized to make the particular request thathas been made.

Alternatively or additionally, some interactions with a requestingdevice 2100 or 2800, including requests that may be transmitted via thenetwork 2999 to the one or more federated devices 2566, may beautomated. In embodiments in which such automated requests are made, therequesting device 2100 or 2800 may automatically provide securitycredentials to the one or more federated devices 2500 to verify that therequesting device 2100 or 2800 is authorized to make the particularrequest that has been made.

In some embodiments, the requests received by the one or more federateddevices 2500 received via the network 2999 and/or the responsestransmitted by the one or more federated devices 2500 thereto via thenetwork 2999 may employ formatting, syntax, timing, synchronization withother activities, etc. that conform to one or more industry standardsfor network communications, programming, processor coordination, etc. Byway of example, such aspects of such requests may conform to one or moreof the various versions of the specification for the message-passinginterface (MPI) promulgated by the MPI Forum, which is a cooperativeventure by numerous governmental, corporate and academic entities fromaround the world. As will be explained in greater detail, one or moreobjects may be exchanged in such requests and/or in such responsesthereto as portions of streamed data that is included therewith.

As further depicted, the control routine 2540 may also include aninterpretation component 2547 to cause the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 to, in response to any of a variety oferror conditions that may arise in performing a requested operationand/or in response to instances in which a request is to be denied,generate a graphical indication of the error and/or the cause fordenial. Such a graphical indication may take the form of a DAG 2270 thatprovides a visual indication of an error or other condition within anobject and/or between two or more objects, and may entail interpretingportions of executable instructions, definitions of job flows,specifications of input and/or output interfaces, comments written byprogrammers, etc., within such objects as job flow definitions 2220,task routines 2440 and/or instance logs 2720. Upon being generated, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused by the portal component 2549 to relaysuch graphical indications (e.g., DAGs 2270) to the requesting device tobe visually presented to an operator thereof and/or stored therein for afuture visual presentation to an operator thereof.

Among such requests may be a request to store one or more objects withina federated area 2566, to access one or more objects stored within afederated area 2566 and/or to delete one or more objects stored within afederated area 2566. As depicted, the control routine 2540 may includean admission component 2542 to cause the processor(s) 2550 of the one ormore federated devices 2500 to apply a set of rules that placeconstraints on the storage of objects within federated areas and/or theremoval of objects therefrom to ensure that job flows are able to befully performed and/or that past performances of job flows are able tobe repeated as part of being scrutinized. In so applying such rules, theprocessor(s) 2550, in response to the request, may fully or partiallycarry out the requested operations, which may result in the exchange ofone or more objects via the network 2999 between the requesting device2100 or 2800 and the one or more federated devices 2500, depending onthe application of such a set of rules. Alternatively, in response, theprocessor(s) 2550 may transmit an indication of a refusal, via thenetwork 2999 and to the requesting device, to carry out the requestedoperations, depending on the application of such a set of rules. Such anindication may include a DAG 2270 that visually presents an indicationof the reason for the refusal.

Among such requests may be a request for the one or more federateddevices 2500 to convert a spreadsheet data structure into a set ofobjects required for the performance of an analysis as a job flow, andto store those generated objects within a federated area 2566. Such aspreadsheet data structure may contain one or more two-dimensionalarrays of data and multiple formulae for the performance of theanalysis. In response, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may analyze the included data and the formulae toderive a set of task routines and a job flow definition that is able toperform the analysis specified in the data structure in a manner thatmay be better optimized for a performance of the analysis as a job flowusing distributed processing resources of the one or more federateddevices 2500. Additionally, the processor(s) 2550 may generate a DAG2270 to provide a visual representation of the resulting job flow.

Among such requests may be a request for the processor(s) 2550 of theone or more federated devices 2500 to perform a job flow. It may be thatsuch a request conveys a job flow identifier and/or an instance logidentifier that enables the identification of the job flow requested tobe performed, thereby allowing an already generated job flow definitionthat defines various aspects of the job flow to be retrieved fromstorage, along with other objects, to enable the requested performanceof the job flow. However, it may also be (e.g., where the requestconforms to one or more of the MPI specifications) that the request doesnot provide either a job flow identifier or an instance log identifier,and instead, directly provides portions of the content of a job flowdefinition, such as flow task identifiers, specifications of interfacesand/or data object identifiers, thereby enabling a job flow definitionthat defines various aspects of the job flow to be dynamically generatedas part of enabling the job flow to be performed.

Regardless of the exact manner in which a request to perform a job flowis received, the processor(s) 2550 may, in response, retrieve thevarious objects needed for the performance, including the most up todate versions of the task routines 2440 needed to perform each of thetasks specified in the job flow definition 2220 for the job flow. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may additionally check whether the job flow hasalready been performed with the same set of most up to date taskroutines 2440, and if so, may then transmit the result report(s) 2770 ofthat past performance to the requesting device 2100 or 2800 in lieu ofperforming what would be a repetition of that past performance In thisway, processing resources may be conserved for use in performing otheroperations, including other job flows.

Alternatively, where the request is to repeat a particular pastperformance of a job flow, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices may, in response, use the information included in therequest that identifies the job flow to retrieve the various objectsassociated with the past performance (e.g., the job flow definition2220, the flow input data set(s) 2330, the task routines 2440) from oneor more federated areas 2566, and may then use the retrieved objects torepeat the past performance In some embodiments, the processor(s) 2550may also retrieve the results report(s) 2770 generated by the pastperformance for comparison with the corresponding result report(s) 2770generated by the repeat performance, and may transmit an indication ofthe results thereof to the requesting device 2100 or 2800. Such anindication of the results may include a DAG 2270 that may provide avisual indication of any inconsistency identified by the comparison.

Among such requests may be a request for the one or more federateddevices 2500 to generate a DAG 2270 of one or more objects, such as aDAG 2270 of one or more task routines 2440, the task(s) performed by oneor more task routines 2440, a job flow specified in a job flowdefinition 2220, or a past performance of a job flow documented by aninstance log 2720. A DAG 2270 may provide visual representations of oneor more tasks and/or task routines 2440, including visualrepresentations of inputs and/or outputs of each. In response, theprocessor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may generatethe requested DAG 2270 and transmit it the requesting device 2100 or2800. As an alternative to a request to generate a DAG 2270 using theprocessing resources of the one or more federated devices 2500, arequest may be received for the one or more federated devices 2500 toprovide the requesting device 2100 or 2800 a set of objects needed toenable the requesting device 2100 or 2800 to generate a DAG 2270. Inresponse, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices2500 may generate a set of macros 2470, one for each task or taskroutine 2440 that is to be included in the DAG 2270 for purposes ofbeing transmitted to the requesting device 2100 or 2800 to enablegeneration of the DAG 2270 by the requesting device 2100 or 2800.

Among such requests may be a request to generate a package containingcopies of one or more of the federated areas 2566 maintained by the oneor more federated devices 2500 to enable the copies of the one or morefederated areas 2566 to be instantiated within one or more otherdevices. The request may specify that each copy of a federated area 2566that is within the package is to include copies of all of the objectspresent within the counterpart federated area 2566 from which the copyis generated. Alternatively, the request may specify that each of copyof a federated area that is within the package is to include copies ofobjects present within the counterpart federated area 2566 from whichthe copy is generated that are needed to perform a specified job flowand/or that are needed to repeat a specified past performance of a jobflow. In some embodiments, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may, in response, apply a set of rules to thegeneration of the package to ensure that the copies of federated area(s)included therein and/or the copies of sets of objects included withineach copy of a federated area 2566 is complete enough to avoid one ormore job flows being rendered incapable of being performed as a resultof copies of one or more needed objects not having been included in thepackage. Following generation of the package, the processor(s) 2550 maytransmit the package to the requesting device 2100 or 2800.

Turning to FIG. 13D, as an alternative to the use of separate requeststo bring about individual transfers of one or more objects to and fromthe one or more federated devices 2500, a single request may be made andgranted by the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices2500 to instantiate a synchronization relationship between a transferarea 2666 instantiated within a specified federated area 2566 maintainedby the one or more federated devices 2500, and another transfer area2166 or 2866 instantiated within the storage 2160 or 2860 of a sourcedevice 2100 or a reviewing device 2800, respectively. The transfer area2666 may occupy the entirety of the federated area 2566 within which itis instantiated, or a designated portion thereof. Correspondingly, thetransfer area 2166 or 2866 may occupy a designated portion of thestorage 2160 or 2860, respectively. With such a synchronizationrelationship in place, the contents of the transfer area 2666 may berecurringly synchronized with the contents of the transfer area 2166 or2866. More specifically, changes made to objects within the transferarea 2666 (e.g., the addition, removal and/or alteration of objects) maytrigger the transfer of one or more objects therefrom to the transferarea 2166 or 2866 to cause the contents of these two transfer areas toremain synchronized with each other. Correspondingly, changes made toobjects within the transfer area 2166 or 2866 may trigger a similartransfer of one or more objects therefrom to the transfer area 2666 toalso cause the contents of these two transfer areas to remainsynchronized with each other.

In some embodiments, processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may cooperate with the other device 2100 or 2800 in thetriggering of such transfers by recurringly exchanging indications ofthe current state of the objects stored in their respective ones of thetransfer areas 2666, and 2166 or 2866. By way of example, a pollingapproach may be used in which the one or more federated devices 2500 maybe provided with the security credentials required to “log in” to theother device 2100 or 2800 to gain access to the transfers space 2166 or2866 in a manner similar to that of a user of the other device 2100 or2800, and may then compare what objects are present within the transferspace 2166 or 2866, respectively, to what objects were present duringthe last time such a check was performed to identify added objects,altered objects and/or removed objects therein. Correspondingly, as analternative, the other device 2100 or 2800 may be provided with similarcredentials to enable the processor(s) 2150 or 2850 thereof to “log in”to the one or more federated devices 2500 to make similar comparisonsconcerning the objects that are present within the transfer space 2666.Where a change to an object in one of these transfer areas has beendetermined to have occurred, the one of these devices that has “loggedin” to the other may then make a request of the other to provide thecopies of one or more objects that are needed to bring its own one ofthese transfer areas back into synchronization with the other such thatboth of these transfer areas again contain the same objects in the samecondition.

In other embodiments, as an alternative to or in addition to such apolling approach, an approach of “volunteering” indications may be usedin which the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500may, either at a recurring interval of time or in response to theoccurrence of changes to one or more objects within the transfer area2666, transmit an indication of the current state of objects currentlypresent within the transfer area 2666 to the other device 2100 or 2800.Where there has been such a change within the transfer area 2666, such atransmitted indication thereof may be accompanied with the transmissionof one or more copies of the objects that are present within thetransfer area 2666 to the other device 2100 or 2800 to enable theprocessor(s) 2150 or 2850 of the other device 2100 or 2800 to bring thetransfer area 2166 or 2866, respectively, back into synchronization withthe transfer area 2666 such that both of these transfer areas againcontain the same objects in the same condition. Correspondingly, theprocessor(s) 2150 or 2850 may be use such a “volunteering” approach insimilarly transmitting an indication of the current state of the objectscurrently present within the transfer area 2166 or 2866 to the one ormore federated devices 2500, either at a recurring interval of time orin response to the occurrence of changes to one or more objects withinthe transfer area 2166 or 2866, respectively. Similarly, where there hasbeen such a change within the transfer area 2166 or 2866, such atransmitted indication thereof may be accompanied with the transmissionof one or more copies of the objects that are present within thetransfer area 2166 or 2866 to the one or more federated devices 2500 toenable the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500to bring the transfer area 2666 back into synchronization with thetransfer area 2166 or 2866, respectively, such that both of thesetransfer areas again contain the same objects in the same condition.

In some embodiments, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may be caused by the admission component 2542 to apply thesame set of rules restricting the storage of objects within the one ormore federated areas 2566 and/or the removal of objects therefrom aswere described above in handling responses to received requests.However, in other embodiments and as will be explained in greaterdetail, accommodating such a synchronization relationship may entailchanges to, or relaxation of, the enforcement of that set of rules. Insuch other embodiments, instead of applying the set of rules in a mannerthat disallows the transfer of objects in response to an error conditionor other violation of the rules, a DAG 2270 may be generated thatprovides a visual indication of the rule violation and/or the errorcondition. Upon being generated, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused bythe portal component 2549 to automatically transfer such a DAG 2270between the two transfer areas as part of the synchronizationrelationship and to make such a DAG 2270 available in both transferareas.

In some embodiments, such a synchronization relationship may beinstantiated where the device 2100 or 2800 is at least partially used asa repository for objects, such as a source code repository for ananalysis routine that is under development. As will also be explained ingreater detail, it may be that developers who are familiar with the useof federated areas 2566 and/or who have been granted access to the oneor more federated areas 2566 maintained by the one or more federateddevices 2500 may be working in collaboration with other developers whoare not so familiar with the use of federated areas 2566 and/or who havenot been granted such access. Through such a synchronizationrelationship, objects developed by such other developers may becontributed to the objects stored within the one or more federated areas2566 by placing them within the transfer area 2166 or 2866.Correspondingly, such other developers may be given access to objectsstored within the one or more federated areas 2566 by placing thoseobjects (or copies thereof) within the transfer area 2666.

As will further be explained in greater detail, such other developersmay also not be familiar with a primary programming language that maynormally be expected to be used in generating job flow definitions 2220,DAGs 2270, task routines 2440 and/or macros 2470, and as a result, maygenerate such objects in one or more secondary programming languages.Thus, as part of performing such automated transfers and applying theset of rules, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices2500 may also perform automated translations of at least portions ofobjects that define or implement input and/or output interfaces. Suchtranslations may be between the primary and secondary programminglanguages. Alternatively or additionally, such translations may be fromthe primary and secondary programming languages, and into anintermediate representation, such as an intermediate programminglanguage or a data structure, to enable the earlier describedcomparisons among definitions and/or implementations of input and/oroutput interfaces to be made.

As an alternative to the aforedescribed relatively simplesynchronization relationship between a single transfer area 2666 withina single federated area 2566 and a single transfer area 2166 or 2866within a single storage 2160 or 2860, respectively, in otherembodiments, a set of synchronization relationships may be formed thatincludes multiple transfer areas 2666 across multiple federated areas2566 and/or that includes multiple transfer areas 2166 or 2866 within astorage 2160 or 2860, respectively. Such embodiments may be deemeddesirable where there is a collaborative development effort to develop arelatively complex analysis routine between developers familiar withfederated areas and/or familiar with the primary programming languagenormally expected to be used in generating job flow definitions 2220,DAGs 2270, task routines 2440 and/or macros 2470, and developers who maynot be familiar with either or both. More specifically, and as will beexplained in greater detail, the objects used in the development of sucha relatively complex analysis routine may be stored across multiplefederated areas 2566 that form a hierarchy thereamong, thereby promptinga need to define a separate transfer area 2666 within each. It may bethat a corresponding hierarchy may be created within a storage 2160 or2860 as a set of directories and/or subdirectories, each with acorresponding transfer area 2166 or 2866, respectively. Thus, each ofthe multiple transfer areas 2666 within one of such federated areas 2566may have a corresponding one of the multiple transfer areas 2166 or 2866at a corresponding hierarchical position with which it is synchronized.

Alternatively or additionally, as an alternative to the performance ofexchanges of objects occurring in a synchronization relationship beingtriggered by instances of changes in objects, in other embodiments,exchanges between synchronized transfer areas may also be triggered byan instance of the use of an object to generate a new object. By way ofexample, and as will be explained in greater detail, where an object,such as a job flow definition 2220 or a DAG 2270, is used as a componentin forming a new object, such as a new job flow definition 2220 or a newDAG 2270, such a new object may be become another of the objects thatare kept synchronized in a synchronization relationship between transferareas. Thus, and more specifically, such a new object, and subsequentchanges made thereto, may be copied between a transfer area 2566 andanother transfer area 2166 or 2866. Alternatively, where differentprogramming languages are used, a translated form of such a new object,and of subsequent changes made thereto, may be generated in the otherlanguage within the other of the two transfer areas.

Turning to FIGS. 13E-G, in various embodiments, each of the one or morestorage devices 2600 within the depicted set of storage devices 2600 a-xand/or 2600 z may incorporate a processor 2650 and/or a storage 2660coupled to the processor. In at least a subset of the storage devices2600 a-x and/or 2600 z, the storage 2660 may store a nodal storageroutine 2641. Alternatively or additionally, in at least a subset of thestorage devices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z, the storage 2660 may store amaster storage routine 2649. Each of the nodal storage routine 2641 andthe master storage routine 2649 may incorporate a sequence ofinstructions operative on the processor 2650 of each of the storagedevices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z to implement logic to perform variousfunctions. Each of the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z may bedirectly coupled to and/or otherwise interact with a single federateddevice 2560. Alternatively, each of the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or2600 z may interact with multiple ones of the federated devices 2560 asa result of being shared thereamong. Although not specifically depicted,such sharing of the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z may bethrough the network 2999.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 13E, in some embodiments, at least asubset of the storage devices 2600 a-x may be operated by the one ormore federated devices 2500 as individual storage devices 2600 whereeach is caused to store objects (e.g., the depicted objects 2220, 2270,2330, 2370, 2440, 2470, 2720 and/or 2770) in an undivided manner suchthat none of such objects are stored in a distributed form that spansmultiple ones of the storage devices 2600 a-x. As will be explained ingreater detail, such storage of objects in an undivided manner may belimited to objects that are of a smaller size than a predeterminedthreshold size. In such embodiments, and as will also be explained ingreater detail, it may be that each federated area 2566 is defined toexist entirely within a single one of the storage devices 2600 a-x.Within each such one of the storage devices 2600 a-x, the processor 2650may be caused by its execution of the nodal storage routine 2641 toimplement a local file system 2661 within at least a portion of thestorage 2660 thereof, and may be caused to cooperate with the one ormore federated devices 2560 to define one or more federated areas 2566within such a portion of the storage 2660 that is occupied by the localfile system 2661.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 13F, in some embodiments, at least asubset of the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z may be operatedtogether by the one or more federated devices 2500 to store at leastdata objects (e.g., the depicted data objects 2330, 2330 d, 2370, 2370d, 2770 and/or 2770 d) in a distributed manner such that each of suchdata objects is divided into data object blocks 2336, 2336 d, 2370, 2376d, 2776 and/or 2776 d, respectively, which are distributed acrossmultiple ones of such storage devices for storage for storage in amanner that spans multiple ones of the storage devices 2600 a-x. Aspreviously discussed, such distributed storage of objects may be limitedto those that are larger in size than the predetermined threshold size.In such embodiments, and as will be explained in greater detail, it maybe that each federated area 2566 is defined to span multiple ones of thestorage devices 2600 a-x.

Within the storage device 2600 z, the processor 2650 may be caused byits execution of the master storage routine 2649 to coordinate with suchones of the storage devices 2600 a-x to implement a distributed filesystem 2669 that spans and encompasses at least a portion of the storage2660 of each. Within each such one of the storage devices 2600 a-x, theprocessor 2650 may be caused by its execution of the nodal storageroutine 2641 to cooperate with the storage device 2600 z to implement aportion of the distributed file system 2669 within at least a portion ofits storage 2660. The processors 2650 of the storage device 2600 z andof each of such ones of the storage devices 2600 a-x may cooperate withthe one or more federated devices 2500 to define one or more federatedareas 2566 to span such portions of the storages 2660 within which thedistributed file system 2669 is so implemented.

In some of such embodiments, the distributed file system 2669 that is soimplemented may be HDFS, and it may be that the processor 2650 of thestorage device 2600 z is caused by the master storage routine 2649 tooperate the storage device 2600 z to serve as the “name server” for suchan implementation of HDFS. It should be noted that, there may be morethan one of the storage device 2600 z, and such additional storagedevice(s) 2006 z may be maintained as additional name servers to enablethe name server functions to be implemented more quickly and/orefficiently through the use of parallelism, and/or to serve as backupname server(s) to provide redundancy against failure in the performanceof the name server functions.

As previously discussed, it may be that a relatively large data object2330, 2370 or 2770 received by the one or more federated devices 2500for storage is of a form that is not able to be divided to directlygenerate data object blocks in which the data items are organized in ahomogeneous manner. As also previously discussed, the one or morefederated devices 2500 may address this issue by converting such a dataobject 2330, 2370 or 2770 from its originally received from and into adistributable form (e.g., as a corresponding one of the data object 2330d, 2370 d or 2440 d) in which the organization of the data items ischanged into a homogeneous manner of organization that enables itsdivision into data object blocks 2336 d, 2376 d or 2446 d, respectively,in which the data items are also organized in a homogeneous manner thatmakes the data items more readily accessible (e.g., without the need torefer to a distinct metadata structure).

In embodiments in which at least a subset of the storage devices 2600a-x and/or 2600 z implement HDFS, it may be those storage devices withinthat subset that perform the division of a data object into blocks forstorage. As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, implementingHDFS typically includes selecting a distribution block size that is usedto determine whether an object that is to be stored will be divided intoblocks, or not. Objects that are larger than the distribution block sizewill be divided into blocks that are each no larger than thedistribution block size, while objects that are smaller than thethreshold size are not so divided. Typical distribution block sizes thathave been used in previous implementations of HDFS are 64 MB and 128 MB.The one or more federated devices 2500 may employ the same distributionblock size as is used to implement HDFS among the storage devices 2600a-x and/or 2600 z as the predetermined threshold size used as at leastone factor in determining whether or not to convert the form of a datablock that is to be stored from the form in which it was originallyreceived and a distributable form.

In some embodiments, the distribution block size may be associated withstorage capacity limitations of one or more of the storage devices 2600.By way of example, the predetermined threshold size may be selected totrigger the dividing of large data objects that might actually be largerthan the storage capacity of any one of the storage devices 2600. Insuch embodiments, there may be an upper limit placed on the size of anydata object based on the total capacity of a set of storage devices 2600that are used together to store large data objects in a distributedmanner, and such an upper limit may be selected to strike a balancebetween enabling storage of large data objects, while preventing thestorage capacity from being consumed by the storage of a relativelysmall quantity of data objects. Alternatively, the predeterminedthreshold size may be selected to cause division of large data objectsthat are sufficiently large that there is an appreciable improvementpossible in speed of access thereto by splitting them up into dataobject blocks that are distributed across multiple ones of the storagedevices 2600. In each of such other embodiments, there may be an upperlimit placed on the size of any data object that may be based on thetotal storage capacity available in any one of the storage devices 2600.

It should be noted that, although the distributed storage of large dataobjects that are either already in distributable form or that have beenconverted into distributable form is discussed herein, variouscircumstances may arise in which other large data objects that are notin distributable form may, nonetheless, also be stored in a distributedmanner among multiple ones of the storage devices 2600 a-x. By way ofexample, it may be that the at least partially parallel performances ofa job flow on the earlier stored data object blocks 2336 d, 2376 d or2776 d of the distributable form of the data object 2330 d, 2370 d or2770 d, respectively, may result in the generation of corresponding dataobject blocks of another data set as an output of that job flow. Thus,as a result of such at least partially parallel performances of the jobflow, a portion of the storage space provided within each of thosestorage devices 2600 a-x for a portion of a federated area 2566 may becaused to store a new data object block 2336, 2376 or 2776 belonging toanother data set 2330, 2370 or 2770, respectively, that was notgenerated by dividing a distributable form of a data set 2330 d, 2370 dor 2770 d that is provided by the one or more federated devices suchthat data items within each may not be organized in a homogeneous mannerThus, as depicted, a federated area 2566 that spans multiple ones of thestorage devices 2600 a-x within the portions of storage space spanned bythe distributed file system 2669 may store data object blocks 2336, 2376and/or 2776 of data objects 2330, 2370 or 2770 that are not ofdistributable form alongside data object blocks 2336 d, 2376 d and/or2776 d of data object blocks 2330 d, 2370 d and/or 2770 d, respectively,that are of distributable form.

As will be explained in greater detail, the selection of which ofmultiple ones of the storage devices 2600 are used in performing a jobflow may be at least partially determined by which of those multiplestorage devices 2600 store a data object block of a data object that isto be used as an input in that performance. As will also be explained ingreater detail, such generated and stored data object blocks 2336, 2376and/or 2776 that are not of distributable form may be selectivelycombined (e.g., in a reduction operation) to generate a correspondingone of the data object 2330, 2370 or 2770 of undivided form. By way ofexample, where a result report 2770 that was originally generated assuch data object blocks 2776 during a performance of a job flow is to betransmitted to a device that requested the performance (e.g., a sourcedevice 2100 or a reviewing device 2800, those data object blocks 2776may be so combined to generate an undivided form of the result report2770 as part of enabling its transmittal to the requesting device.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 13G, although not specificallydiscussed or depicted in either of FIG. 13E or 13F, embodiments of thedistributed processing system 2000 are possible in which data objects2330, 2370 and/or 2440 may be stored as a mixture of storage asundivided data objects and storage in a distributed manner Again, themanner in which each data object 2330, 2370 and 2440 is stored maydepend upon its size relative to a predetermined threshold size. Morespecifically, where a data object 2330, 2370 or 2440 is of a size thatis smaller than the predetermined threshold size, that data object maybe stored within a single one of the storage devices 2600 as a singleundivided object. However, where a data object 2330, 2370 or 2440 is ora size that exceeds the predetermined threshold size, that data objectmay be converted from the form in which it was received and into adistributable form, and may then be stored in a distributed manner amongmultiple storage devices 2600 as multiple blocks 2336 d, 2376 d and/or2770 d, respectively.

As also more specifically depicted in FIG. 13G, it may be that suchstorage of data objects 2330, 2370 and/or 2440 (either as undivided dataobjects and/or in a distributed manner as data object blocks) is acrossone or more federated devices 2500, either in addition to or in lieu ofsuch storage across one or more storage devices 2600. In suchembodiments, it may be the processor(s) 2550 of one or more otherfederated device(s) 2500 designated as 2500 a-x that executeinstructions of the nodal storage routine 2641 to perform operationsassociated with storing data objects and/or data object blocks, and/orit may be the processor(s) 2550 of one or more federated devices 2500designated as 2500 z that execute instructions of the master storageroutine 2649 to perform operations to coordinate the storage of dataobjects in at least a distributed manner.

FIG. 14A illustrates a block diagram of another example embodiment of adistributed processing system 2000 also incorporating one or more sourcedevices 2100, one or more reviewing devices 2800, one or more federateddevices 2500 that may form the federated device grid 2005, and/or one ormore storage devices 2600 that may form the storage device grid 2006.FIG. 14B illustrates exchanges, through a network 2999, ofcommunications among the devices 2100, 2500, 2600 and/or 2800 associatedwith the controlled storage of and/or access to various objects withinone or more federated areas 2566. The example distributed processingsystem 2000 of FIGS. 14A-B is substantially similar to the exampleprocessing system 2000 of FIGS. 13A-B, but features an alternateembodiment of the one or more federated devices 2500 providing anembodiment of the one or more federated areas 2566 within which jobflows are not performed. Thus, while task routines 2440 may be executedby the one or more federated devices 2500 within each of the one or morefederated areas 2566 in addition to storing objects within each of theone or more federated areas 2566 of FIGS. 13A-B, in FIGS. 14A-B, each ofthe one or more federated areas 2566 serves as a location in whichobjects may be stored, but within which no task routines 2440 areexecuted.

Instead, in the example distributed processing system 2000 of FIGS.14A-B, the performance of job flows, including the execution of taskroutines 2440 of job flows, may be performed by the one or more sourcedevices 2100 and/or by the one or more reviewing devices 2800. Thus, asbest depicted in FIG. 14B, the one or more source devices 2100 may beoperated to interact with the one or more federated devices 2500 to moresimply store a variety of objects associated with the performance of ajob flow within the one or more source devices 2100. More specifically,one of the source devices 2100 may be operated to store, in a federatedarea 2566, a result report 2770 and/or an instance log 2720 associatedwith a performance of a job flow defined by a job flow definition 2220,in addition to also being operated to store the job flow definition2220, along with the associated task routines 2440 and any associateddata sets 2330 in a federated area 2566. Additionally, such a one of thesource devices 2100 may also store any DAGs 2270 and/or macros 2470 thatmay be associated with those task routines 2440. As a result, each ofthe one or more federated areas 2566 is employed to store a record ofperformances of job flows that occur externally thereof.

Correspondingly, as part of a review of a performance of a job flow, theone or more reviewing devices 2800 may be operated to retrieve the jobflow definition 2220 of the job flow, along with the associated taskroutines 2440 and any associated data sets 2330 from a federated area2566, in addition to retrieving the corresponding result report 2770generated by the performance and/or the instance log 2720 detailingaspects of the performance. With such a more complete set of the objectsassociated with the performance retrieved from one or more federatedareas 2566, the one or more reviewing devices 2800 may then be operatedto independently repeat the performance earlier carried out by the oneor more source devices 2100. Following such an independent performance,a new result report 2870 generated by the independent performance maythen be compared to the retrieved result report 2770 as part ofreviewing the outputs of the earlier performance Where macros 2470and/or DAGs 2270 associated with the associated task routines 2440 areavailable, the one or more reviewing devices 2800 may also be operatedto retrieve them for use in analyzing any discrepancies revealed by suchan independent performance.

Referring back to all of FIGS. 13A-B and 14A-B, the role of generatingobjects and the role of reviewing the use of those objects in a pastperformance have been presented and discussed as involving separate anddistinct devices, specifically, the source devices 2100 and thereviewing devices 2800, respectively. However, it should be noted thatother embodiments are possible in which the same one or more devices maybe employed in both roles such that at least a subset of the one or moresource devices 2100 and the one or more reviewing devices 2800 may beone and the same.

FIGS. 15A, 15B, 15C, 15D, 15E, 15F, 15G, 15H, 15I, 15J and 15K,together, illustrate aspects of the provision of, and interactionsamong, multiple related federated areas 2566 by the one or morefederated devices 2500. FIG. 15A depicts aspects of a linear hierarchyof federated areas 2566, FIG. 15B depicts aspects of a hierarchical treeof federated areas 2566, and FIG. 15C depicts aspects of navigatingamong federated areas 2566 within the hierarchical tree of FIG. 15B.FIGS. 15A-C, together, also illustrate aspects of one or morerelationships that may be put in place among federated areas 2566 thatmay control access to objects stored therein. FIG. 15D illustratesaspects of selectively allowing users of one or more federated areas2566 to exercise control over various aspects thereof. FIG. 15Eillustrates aspects of supporting the addition of new federated areas2566 and/or new users of federated areas 2566, using an example ofbuilding a set of related federated areas 2566 based on the examplehierarchical tree of federated areas introduced in FIGS. 15B-C. FIGS.15F-H, together, illustrate aspects of allocating portion(s) of one ormore federated areas for one or more specialized functions. FIGS. 15I-K,together, illustrate various ways in which federated areas 2566 and/ortheir contents may be defined within storage space(s) provided by one ormore storage devices 2600 and/or one or more federated devices 2500.

Turning to FIG. 15A, a set of federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566 xmay be maintained within the storage(s) 2560 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 and/or within the one or more storage devices2600. As depicted, a linear hierarchy of degrees of restriction ofaccess may be put in place among the federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u and2566 x. More specifically, the federated area 2566 q may be a privatefederated area subject to the greatest degree of restriction in accessamong the depicted federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566 x. Incontrast, the base federated area 2566 x may a more “public” federatedarea to the extent that it may be subject to the least restricted degreeof access among the depicted federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566 x.Further, the intervening federated area 2566 u may be subject to anintermediate degree of restriction in access ranging from almost asrestrictive as the greater degree of restriction applied to the privatefederated area 2566 q to almost as unrestrictive as the lesser degree ofrestriction applied to the base federated area 2566 x. Stateddifferently, the number of users granted access may be the largest forthe base federated area 2566 x, may progressively decrease to anintermediate number for the intervening federated area 2566 u, and mayprogressively decrease further to a smallest number for the privatefederated area 2566 q.

There may be any of a variety of scenarios that serve as the basis forselecting the degrees of restriction of access to each of the federatedareas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566 x. By way of example, all three of thesefederated areas may be under the control of a user of the source device2100 q where such a user may desire to provide the base federated area2566 x as a storage location to which a relatively large number of otherusers may be granted access to make use of objects stored therein by theuser of the source device 2100 q and/or at which other users may storeobjects as a mechanism to provide objects to the user of the sourcedevice 2100 q. Such a user of the source device 2100 q may also desireto provide the intervening federated area 2566 u as a storage locationto which a smaller number of selected other users may be granted access,where the user of the source device 2100 q desires to exercise tightercontrol over the distribution of objects stored therein.

As a result of this hierarchical range of restrictions in access, a userof the depicted source device 2100 x may be granted access to the basefederated area 2566 x, but not to either of the other federated areas2566 u or 2566 q. A user of the depicted source device 2100 u may begranted access to the intervening federated area 2566 u, and asdepicted, such a user of the source device 2100 u may also be grantedaccess to the base federated area 2566 x, for which restrictions inaccess are less than that of the intervening federated area 2566 u.However, such a user of the source device 2100 u may not be grantedaccess to the private federated area 2566 q. In contrast, a user of thesource device 2100 q may be granted access to the private federated area2566 q. As depicted, may also be granted access to the interveningfederated area 2566 u and the base federated area 2566 x, both of whichare subject to lesser restrictions in access than the private federatedarea 2566 q.

As a result of the hierarchy of access restrictions just described,users granted access to the intervening federated area 2566 u aregranted access to objects 2220, 2270, 2330, 2370, 2440, 2470, 2720and/or 2770 that may be stored within either of the interveningfederated area 2566 u or the base federated area 2566 x. To enable suchusers to request the performance of job flows using objects stored ineither of these federated areas 2566 x and 2566 u, an inheritancerelationship may be put in place between the intervening federated area2566 u and the base federated area 2566 x in which objects stored withinthe base federated area 2566 x may be as readily available to beutilized in the performance of a job flow at the request of a user ofthe intervening federated area 2566 u as objects that are stored withinthe intervening federated area 2566 u.

Similarly, also as a result of the hierarchy of access restrictions justdescribed, the one or more users granted access to the private federatedarea 2566 q are granted access to objects 2220, 2270, 2330, 2370, 2440,2470, 2720 and/or 2770 that may be stored within any of the privatefederated area 2566 q, the intervening federated area 2566 u or the basefederated area 2566 x. Correspondingly, to enable such users to requestthe performance of job flows using objects stored in any of thesefederated areas 2566 x and 2566 u, an inheritance relationship may beput in place among the private federated area 2566 q, the interveningfederated area 2566 u and the base federated area 2566 x in whichobjects stored within the base federated area 2566 x or the interveningfederated area 2566 u may be as readily available to be utilized in theperformance of a job flow at the request of a user of the privatefederated area 2566 q as objects that are stored within the privatefederated area 2566 q.

Such inheritance relationships among the federated areas 2566 q, 2566 uand 2566 x may be deemed desirable to encourage efficiency in thestorage of objects throughout by eliminating the need to store multiplecopies of the same objects throughout multiple federated areas 2566 tomake them accessible throughout a hierarchy thereof. More precisely, atask routine 2440 stored within the base federated area 2566 x need notbe copied into the private federated area 2566 q to become available foruse during the performance of a job flow requested by a user of theprivate federated area 2566 q and defined by a job flow definition 2220that may be stored within the private federated area 2566 q.

In some embodiments, such inheritance relationships may be accompaniedby corresponding priority relationships to provide at least a defaultresolution to instances in which multiple versions of an object arestored in different ones of the federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566x such that one version thereof must be selected from among multiplefederated areas for use in the performance of a job flow. By way ofexample, and as will be explained in greater detail, there may bemultiple versions of a task routine 2440 that may be stored within asingle federated area 2566 or across multiple federated areas 2566. Thissituation may arise as a result of improvements being made to such atask routine 2440, and/or for any of a variety of other reasons. Where apriority relationship is in place between at least the base federatedarea 2566 x and the intervening federated area 2566 u, in addition to aninheritance relationship therebetween, and where there is a differentversion of a task routine 2440 within each of the federated areas 2566 uand 2566 x that may be used in the performance of a job flow requestedby a user of the intervening federated area 2566 u (e.g., through thesource device 2100 u), priority may be automatically given by theprocessor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 to using aversion stored within the intervening federated area 2566 u over usingany version that may be stored within the base federated area 2566 x.Stated differently, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may be caused to search within the intervening federatedarea 2566 u, first, for a version of such a task routine 2440, and mayuse a version found therein if a version is found therein. Theprocessor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may thenentirely forego searching within the base federated area 2566 x for aversion of such a task routine 2440, unless no version of the taskroutine 2440 is found within the intervening federated area 2566 u.

Similarly, where a priority relationship is in place between among allthree of the federated areas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q, in addition toan inheritance relationship thereamong, and where there is a differentversion of a task routine 2440 within each of the federated areas 2566q, 2566 u and 2566 x that may be used in the performance of task of ajob flow requested by a user of the private federated area 2566 q (e.g.,through the source device 2100 q), priority may be automatically givento using the version stored within the private federated area 2566 qover using any version that may be stored within either the interveningfederated area 2566 u or the base federated area 2566 x. However, if noversion of such a task routine 2440 is found within the privatefederated area 2566 q, then the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may be caused to search next within theintervening federated area 2566 u for a version of such a task routine2440, and may use a version found therein if a version is found therein.However, if no version of such a task routine 2440 is found withineither the private federated area 2566 q or the intervening federatedarea 2566 u, then the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may be caused to search within the base federated area 2566x for a version of such a task routine 2440, and may use a version foundtherein if a version is found therein.

In some embodiments, inheritance relationships may be accompanied bycorresponding dependency relationships that may be put in place toensure that all objects required to perform a job flow continue to beavailable. As will be explained in greater detail, for such purposes asenabling accountability and/or investigating errors in analyses, it maybe deemed desirable to impose restrictions against actions that may betaken to delete (or otherwise make inaccessible) objects stored within afederated area 2566 that are needed to perform a job flow that isdefined by a job flow definition 2220 within that same federated area2566. Correspondingly, where an inheritance relationship is put in placeamong multiple federated areas 2566, it may be deemed desirable to put acorresponding dependency relationship in place in which similarrestrictions are imposed against deleting (or otherwise makinginaccessible) an object in one federated area 2566 that may be neededfor the performance of a job flow defined by a job flow definition 2220stored within another federated area 2566 that is related by way of aninheritance relationship put in place between the two federated areas2566. More specifically, where a job flow definition 2220 is storedwithin the intervening federated area 2566 u that defines a job flowthat requires a task routine 2440 stored within the base federated area2566 x (which is made accessible from within the intervening federatedarea 2566 u as a result of an inheritance relationship with the basefederated area 2566 x), the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may not permit the task routine 2440 storedwithin the base federated area 2566 x to be deleted. However, in someembodiments, such a restriction against deleting the task routine 2440stored within the base federated area 2566 x may cease to be imposed ifthe job flow definition 2220 that defines the job flow that requiresthat task routine 2440 is deleted, and there are no other job flowdefinitions 2220 stored elsewhere that also have such a dependency onthat task routine 2440.

Similarly, where a job flow definition 2220 is stored within the privatefederated area 2566 q that defines a job flow that requires a taskroutine 2440 stored within either the intervening federated area 2566 uor the base federated area 2566 x (with which there may be aninheritance relationship), the processor(s) of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may not permit that task routine 2440 to be deleted.However, such a restriction against deleting that task routine 2440 maycease to be imposed if the job flow definition 2220 that defines the jobflow that requires that task routine 2440 is deleted, and there are noother job flow definitions 2220 stored elsewhere that also have such adependency on that task routine 2440.

In concert with the imposition of inheritance and/or priorityrelationships among a set of federated areas 2566, the exact subset offederated areas 2566 to which a user is granted access may be used as abasis to automatically select a “perspective” from which job flows maybe performed by the one or more federated devices 2500 at the request ofthat user. Stated differently, where a user requests the performance ofa job flow, the retrieval of objects required for that performance maybe based, at least by default, on what objects are available at thefederated area 2566 among the one or more federated areas 2566 to whichthe user is granted access that has highest degree of accessrestriction. The determination of what objects are so available may takeinto account any inheritance and/or priority relationships that may bein place that include such a federated area 2566. Thus, where a usergranted access to the private federated area 2566 q requests theperformance of a job flow, the processor(s) 2550 of the federateddevices 2500 may be caused to select the private federated area 2566 qas the perspective on which determinations concerning which objects areavailable for use in that performance will be based, since the federatedarea 2566 q is the federated area 2566 with the most restricted accessthat the user has been granted access to within the depicted linearhierarchy of federated areas 2566. With the private federated area 2566q so selected as the perspective, any inheritance and/or priorityrelationships that may be in place between the private federated area2566 q and either of the intervening federated area 2566 u or the basefederated area 2566 x may be taken into account in determining whetherany objects stored within either are to be deemed available for use inthat performance (which may be a necessity if there are any objects thatare needed for that performance that are not stored within the privatefederated area 2566 q).

Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, such an automaticselection of perspective may be used to select the storage space inwhich a performance takes place. Stated differently, as part ofmaintaining the security that is intended to be provided through theimposition of a hierarchy of degrees of access restriction acrossmultiple federated areas 2566, a performance of a job flow requested bya user may, at least by default, be performed within the federated areathat has the highest degree of access restriction among the one or morefederated areas to which that user has been granted access. Thus, wherea user granted access to the private federated area 2566 q requests aperformance of a job flow by the one or more federated devices 2500,such a requested performance of that job flow may automatically be soperformed by the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices2500 within the storage space of the private federated area 2566 q. Inthis way, aspects of such a performance are kept out of reach from otherusers that have not been granted access to the private federated area2566 q, including any objects that may be generated as a result of sucha performance (e.g., mid-flow data sets 2370, result reports 2770,etc.). Such a default selection of a federated area 2566 having morerestricted access in which to perform a job flow may be based on apresumption that each user will prefer to have the job flow performancesthat they request being performed within the most secure federated area2566 to which they have been granted access.

It should be noted that, although a linear hierarchy of just threefederated areas is depicted in FIG. 15A for sake of simplicity ofdepiction and discussion, other embodiments of a linear hierarchy arepossible in which there may be multiple intervening federated areas 2566of progressively changing degree of restriction in access between thebase federated area 2566 x and the private federated area 2566 q.Therefore, the depicted quantity of federated areas should not be takenas limiting.

It should also be noted that, although just a single source device 2100is depicted as having been granted access to each of the depictedfederated areas 2566, this has also been done for sake of simplicity ofdepiction and discussion, and other embodiments are possible in whichaccess to one or more of the depicted federated areas 2566 may begranted to users of more than one device. More specifically, the mannerin which restrictions in access to a federated area 2566 may beimplemented may be in any of a variety of ways, including and notlimited to, restricting access to one or more particular users (e.g.,through use of passwords or other security credentials that areassociated with particular persons and/or with particular organizationsof people), or restricting access to one or more particular devices(e.g., through certificates or security credentials that are storedwithin one or more particular devices that may be designated for use ingaining access).

Turning to FIG. 15B, a larger set of federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q,2566 r, 2566 u and 2566 x may be maintained within the storage(s) 2560of the one or more federated devices 2500 and/or within the one or morestorage devices 2600. As depicted, a tree-like hierarchy of degrees ofrestriction of access, similar to the hierarchy depicted in FIG. 15A,may be put in place among the federated areas 2566 within each ofmultiple branches and/or sub-branches of the depicted hierarchical tree.More specifically, each of the federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q and 2566 rmay be a private federated area subject to the highest degrees ofrestriction in access among the depicted federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q,2566 r, 2566 u and 2566 x. Again, in contrast, the base federated area2566 x may be a more public federated area to the extent that it may besubject to the least restricted degree of access among the depictedfederated areas 2566 m, 2566 q, 2566 r, 2566 u and 2566 x. Further, theintervening federated area 2566 u interposed between the base federatedarea 2566 x and each of the private federated areas 2566 q and 2566 rmay be subject to an intermediate degree of restriction in accessranging from almost as restrictive as the degree of restriction appliedto either of the private federated areas 2566 q or 2566 r to almost asunrestrictive as the degree of restriction applied to the base federatedarea 2566 x. Thus, as in the case of the linear hierarchy depicted inFIG. 15A, the number of users granted access may be the largest for thebase federated area 2566 x, may progressively decrease to anintermediate number for the intervening federated area 2566 u, and mayprogressively decrease further to smaller numbers for each of theprivate federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q and 2566 r. Indeed, thehierarchical tree of federated areas 2566 of FIG. 15B shares many of thecharacteristics concerning restrictions of access of the linearhierarchy of federated areas 2566 of FIG. 15A, such that the linearhierarchy of FIG. 15A may be aptly described as a hierarchical treewithout branches.

As a result of the depicted hierarchical range of restrictions inaccess, a user of the depicted source device 2100 x may be grantedaccess to the base federated area 2566 x, but not to any of the otherfederated areas 2566 m, 2566 q, 2566 r or 2566 u. A user of the depictedsource device 2100 u may be granted access to the intervening federatedarea 2566 u, and may also be granted access to the base federated area2566 x, for which restrictions in access are less than that of theintervening federated area 2566 u. However, such a user of the sourcedevice 2100 u may not be granted access to any of the private federatedareas 2566 m, 2566 q or 2566 r. In contrast, a user of the source device2100 q may be granted access to the private federated area 2566 q, andmay also granted access to the intervening federated area 2566 u and thebase federated area 2566 x, both of which are subject to lesserrestrictions in access than the private federated area 2566 q. A user ofthe source device 2100 r may similarly be granted access to the privatefederated area 2566 r, and may similarly also be granted access to theintervening federated area 2566 u and the base federated area 2566 x.Additionally, a user of the source device 2100 m may be granted accessto the private federated area 2566 m, and may also be granted access tothe base federated area 2566 x. However, none of the users of the sourcedevices 2100 m, 2100 q and 2100 r may be granted access to the others ofthe private federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q and 2566 r.

As in the case of the linear hierarchy of FIG. 15A, within the depictedbranch 2569 xm, one or more of inheritance, priority and/or dependencyrelationships may be put in place to enable objects stored within thebase federated area 2566 x to be accessible from the private federatedarea 2566 m to the same degree as objects stored within the privatefederated area 2566 m. Similarly, within the depicted branch 2569 xqr,and within each of the depicted sub-branches 2569 uq and 2569 ur, one ormore of inheritance, priority and/or dependency relationships may be putin place to enable objects stored within either of the interveningfederated area 2566 u and the base federated area 2566 x to beaccessible from the private federated areas 2566 q and 2566 r to thesame degree as objects stored within the private federated areas 2566 qand 2566 r, respectively.

Turning to FIG. 15C, the same hierarchical tree of federated areas 2566m, 2566 q, 2566 r, 2566 u and 2566 x of FIG. 15B is again depicted toillustrate an example of the use of human-readable forms ofidentification to enable a person to distinguish among multiplefederated areas 2566, and to navigate about the hierarchical tree towarda desired one of the depicted federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q, 2566 r,2566 u or 2566 x. More specifically, each of the federated areas 2566 m,2566 q, 2566 r, 2566 u and 2566 x may be assigned a human-readabletextual name such as the depicted textual names “mary”, “queen”,“roger”, “uncle” and “x-ray”, respectively. In some embodiments, each ofthese human-readable names may be stored and maintained as ahuman-readable federated area identifier 2568, where the human-readabletext of each such human-readable FA identifier 2568 may have any of avariety of meanings to the persons who assign and use them, includingand not limited to, indications of who each of these federated areas2566 belongs to, what the purpose of each of these federated areas 2566is deemed to be, how each of these federated areas 2566 relates to theothers functionally and/or in terms of location within the depictedtree, etc.

In this depicted example, these depicted human-readable FA identifiers2568 have been created to also serve as part of a system of navigationin which a web browser of a remote device (e.g., one of the devices 2100or 2800) may be used with standard web access techniques through thenetwork 2999 to navigate about the depicted tree. More specifically,each of these human-readable FA identifiers 2568 may form at least partof a corresponding URL that may be structured to provide an indicationof where its corresponding one of these federated areas 2566 is locatedwithin the hierarchical tree. By way of example, the URL of the basefederated area 2566 x, which is located at the root of the tree, mayinclude the name “x-ray” of the base federated area 2566 x, but notinclude any of the names assigned to any other of these federated areas.In contrast, each of the URLs of each of the private federated areaslocated at the leaves of the hierarchical tree may be formed, at leastpartially, as a concatenation of the names of the federated areas thatare along the path from each such private federated area at a leaflocation of the tree to the base federated area 2566 x at the root ofthe tree. By way of example, the private federated area 2566 r may beassigned a URL that includes the names of the private federated area2566 r, the intervening federated area 2566 u and the base federatedarea 2566 x, thereby providing an indication of the entire path from theleaf position of the private federated area 2566 r within the tree tothe root position of the base federated area 2566 x.

In some embodiments, either in lieu of the assignment of human-readableFA identifiers 2568, or in addition to the assignment of human-readableFA identifiers 2568, each federated area 2566 may alternatively oradditionally be assigned a global federated area identifier 2569 (GUID)that is intended to be unique across all federated areas 2566 that maybe instantiated around the world. In some of such embodiments, suchuniqueness may be made at least highly likely by generating each suchglobal FA identifier 2569 as a random number or other form of randomlygenerated set of bits with a relatively large bit width such that thepossibility of two federated areas 2566 ever being assigned the sameglobal FA identifier 2569 is deemed sufficiently small that each globalFA identifiers 2569 is deemed, for all practical purposes, to be uniqueacross the entire world. Such practically unique global FA identifiers2569 may be so generated and assigned to each federated area 2566 inaddition to the human-readable FA identifiers 2568 to provide amechanism by which each federated area 2566 will always remain uniquelydistinguishable from all others, regardless of any situation that mayarise where two or more federated areas 2566 are somehow given identicalhuman-readable FA identifiers 2568.

It should be noted that, unlike the human-readable FA identifiers 2568that may be manually entered and assigned by an operator of anotherdevice (e.g., one of the devices 2100 or 2800) that may be incommunication with the one or more federated devices 2500 via thenetwork 2999, the global FA identifiers 2569 may be automaticallygenerated by the one or more federated devices 2500 as part of theinstantiation of any new federated area 2566. Such automatic generationof the global FA identifiers 2569 as part of instantiating any newfederated area 2566 may be deemed desirable to ensure that suchpractically unique identification functionality is provided for eachfederated area 2566 from the very moment that it exists. This may alsobe deemed desirable to provide some degree of continuity in the uniqueidentification of each federated area 2566 throughout the time itexists, since in some embodiments, the human-readable FA identifiers2568 may be permitted to be changed throughout the time it exists.

Turning to FIG. 15D, the control routine 2540 executed by processor(s)2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may include a federatedarea component 2546 to control the instantiation of, maintenance of,relationships among, and/or un-instantiation of federated areas 2566within the storage 2560 of one or more federated devices 2500 and/orwithin one or more of the storage devices 2600. The control routine 2540may also include a portal component 2549 to restrict access to the oneor more federated areas 2566 to only authorized users (e.g., authorizedpersons, entities and/or devices), and may restrict the types ofaccesses made to only the federated area(s) 2566 for which each userand/or each device is authorized. However, in alternate embodiments,control of access to the one or more federated areas 2566 may beprovided by one or more other devices that may be interposed between theone or more federated devices 2500 and the network 2999, or that may beinterposed between the one or more federated devices 2500 and the one ormore storage devices 2600 (if present), or that may still otherwisecooperate with the one or more federated devices 2500 to do so.

In executing the portal component 2549, the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 may be caused to operate one or more ofthe network interfaces 2590 to provide a portal accessible by otherdevices via the network 2999 (e.g., the source devices 2100 and/or thereviewing devices 2800), and through which access may be granted to theone or more federated areas 2566. In some embodiments in which the oneor more federated devices 2500 additionally serve to control access tothe one or more federated areas 2566, the portal may be implementedemploying the hypertext transfer protocol over secure sockets layer(HTTPS) to provide a website securely accessible from other devices viathe network 2999. Such a website may include a webpage generated by theprocessor 2550 that requires the provision of a password and/or othersecurity credentials to gain access to the one or more federated areas2566. Such a website may be configured for interaction with otherdevices via an implementation of representational state transfer (RESTor RESTful) application programming interface (API). However, otherembodiments are possible in which the processor 2550 may provide aportal accessible via the network 2999 that is implemented in any of avariety of other ways using any of a variety of handshake mechanismsand/or protocols to selectively provide secure access to the one or morefederated areas 2566.

Regardless of the exact manner in which a portal may be implementedand/or what protocol(s) may be used, in determining whether to grant ordeny access to the one or more federated areas 2566 to another devicefrom which a request for access has been received, the processor(s) 2550of the one or more federated devices 2500 may be caused to refer toindications stored within portal data 2539 of users authorized to begranted access. Such indications may include indications of securitycredentials expected to be provided by such persons, entities and/ormachines. In some embodiments, such indications within the portal data2539 may be organized into a database of accounts that are eachassociated with an entity with which particular persons and/or devicesmay be associated. The processor(s) 2550 may be caused to employ theportal data 2539 to evaluate security credentials received inassociation with a request for access to the at least one of the one ormore federated areas 2566, and may operate a network interface 2590 ofone of the one or more federated devices 2500 to transmit an indicationof grant or denial of access to the at least one requested federatedarea 2566 depending on whether the processor(s) 2550 determine thataccess is to be granted.

Beyond selective granting of access to the one or more federated areas2566 (in embodiments in which the one or more federated devices 2500control access thereto), the processor(s) 2550 may be further caused byexecution of the portal component 2549 to restrict the types of accessgranted, depending on the identity of the user to which access has beengranted. By way of example, the portal data 2539 may indicate thatdifferent users are each to be allowed to have different degrees ofcontrol over different aspects of one or more federated areas 2566. Auser may be granted a relatively high degree of control such that theyare able to create and/or remove one or more federated areas 2566, areable to specify which federated areas 2566 may be included in a set offederated areas, and/or are able to specify aspects of relationshipsamong one or more federated areas 2566 within a set of federated areas.Alternatively or additionally, a user may be granted a somewhat morelimited degree of control such that they are able to alter the accessrestrictions applied to one or more federated areas 2566 such that theymay be able to control which users have access each of such one or morefederated areas 2566.

The processor(s) 2550 may be caused by execution of the portal component2549 to store indications of such changes concerning which users haveaccess to which federated areas 2566 and/or the restrictions applied tosuch access as part of the portal data 2539, where such indications maytake the form of sets of correlations of authorized users to federatedareas 2566 and/or correlations of federated areas 2566 to authorizedusers. In such indications of such correlations, either or both of thehuman-readable FA identifiers 2568 or the global FA identifiers 2569 maybe used. Where requests to add, remove and/or alter one or morefederated areas 2566 are determined, through execution of the portalcomponent 2549 to be authorized, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused byexecution of the federated area component 2546 to carry out suchrequests.

FIG. 15E depicts an example of a series of actions that the processor(s)2550 are caused to take in response to the receipt of a series ofrequests to add federated areas 2566 that eventually results in thecreation of the tree of federated areas 2566 depicted in FIGS. 15B-C. Asdepicted, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices2500 may initially be caused to instantiate and maintain both theprivate federated area 2566 m and the base federated area 2566 x as partof a set of related federated areas that form a linear hierarchy ofdegrees of access restriction therebetween. In some embodiments, thedepicted pair of federated areas 2566 m and 2566 x may have been causedto be generated by a user of the source device 2100 m having sufficientaccess permissions (as determined via the portal component 2549) as tobe able to create the private federated area 2566 m for private storageof one or more objects that are meant to be accessible by a relativelysmall number of users, and to create the related public federated area2566 x for storage of objects meant to be made more widely availablethrough the granting of access to the base federated area 2566 x to alarger number of users. Such access permissions may also include thegranted ability to specify what relationships may be put in placebetween the federated areas 2566 m and 2566 x, including and not limitedto, any inheritance, priority and/or dependency relationshipstherebetween. Such characteristics about each of the federated areas2566 m and 2566 x may be caused to be stored by the federated areacomponent 2546 as part of the federated area parameters 2536. Asdepicted, the federated area parameters 2536 may include a database ofinformation concerning each federated area 2566 that is caused to beinstantiated and/or maintained by the federated area component 2546. Aswith the database of accounts just earlier described as beingimplemented in some embodiments within the portal data 2539, such adatabase of information concerning federated areas 2566 within thefederated area parameters 2536 may also make use of either or both ofthe human-readable FA identifiers 2568 or the global FA identifiers 2569to identify each federated area 2566.

As an alternative to both of the federated areas 2566 m and 2566 xhaving been created and caused to be related to each other throughexpress requests by a user, in other embodiments, the processor(s) 2550of the one or more federated devices 2500 may be caused by the federatedarea component 2546, and based on rules retrieved from federated areaparameters 2536, to automatically create and configure the privatefederated area 2566 m in response to a request to add a user associatedwith the source device 2100 m to the users permitted to access the basefederated area 2566 x. More specifically, a user of the depicted sourcedevice 2100 x that may have access permissions to control variousaspects of the base federated area 2566 x may operate the source device2100 x to transmit a request to the one or more federated devices 2500,via the portal provided thereby on the network 2999, to grant a userassociated with the source device 2100 m access to use the basefederated area 2566 x. In response, and in addition to so granting theuser of the source device 2100 m access to the base federated area 2566x, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 mayautomatically generate the private federated area 2566 m for private useby the user of the source device 2100 m. Such automatic operations maybe triggered by an indication stored in the federated area databasewithin the federated area parameters 2536 that each user that is newlygranted access to the base federated area 2566 x is to be so providedwith their own private federated area 2566. This may be deemed desirableas an approach to making the base federated area 2566 x easier to usefor each such user by providing individual private federate areas 2566within which objects may be privately stored and/or developed inpreparation for subsequent release into the base federated area 2566 x.Such users may be able to store private sets of various tools that eachmay use in such development efforts.

Following the creation of both the federated areas 2566 x and 2566 m,the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may becaused to instantiate and maintain the private federated area 2566 q tobe part of the set of federated areas 2566 m and 2566 x. In so doing,the private federated area 2566 q is added to the set in a manner thatconverts what was a linear hierarchy into a hierarchical tree with apair of branches. As with the instantiation of the private federatedarea 2566 m, the instantiation of the private federated area 2566 q mayalso be performed by the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 as an automated response to the addition of a user of thedepicted source device 2100 q as authorized to access the base federatedarea 2566 x. Alternatively, a user with access permissions to controlaspects of the base federated area 2566 x may operate the source device2100 x to transmit a request to the portal generated by the one or morefederated devices 2500 to create the private federated area 2566 q, withinheritance, priority and/or dependency relationships with the basefederated area 2566 x, and with access that may be limited (at leastinitially) to the user of the source device 2100 q.

Following the addition of the federated area 2566 q, the processor(s)2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may be caused to first,instantiate the intervening federated area 2566 u inserted between theprivate federated area 2566 q and the base federated area 2566 x, andthen instantiate the private federated area 2566 r that branches fromthe newly created intervening federated area 2566 u. In so doing, thesecond branch that was created with the addition of the privatefederated area 2566 q is expanded into a larger branch that includesboth of the private federated areas 2566 q and 2566 r in separatesub-branches.

In various embodiments, the insertion of the intervening federated area2566 u may be initiated in a request transmitted to the portal fromeither the user of the source device 2100 q or the user of the sourcedevice 2100 x, depending on which user has sufficient access permissionsto be permitted to make such a change in the relationship between theprivate federated area 2566 q and the base federated area 2566 x,including the instantiation and insertion of the intervening federatedarea 2566 u therebetween. In some embodiments, it may be necessary forsuch a request made by one of such users to be approved by the otherbefore the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500may proceed to act upon it.

Such a series of additions to a hierarchical tree may be prompted by anyof a variety of circumstances, including and not limited to, a desire tocreate an isolated group of private federated areas that are all withina single isolated branch that includes an intervening federated area bywhich users associated with each of the private federated areas withinsuch a group may be able to share objects without those objects beingmore widely shared outside the group as by being stored within the basefederated area 2566 x. Such a group of users may include a group ofcollaborating developers of task routines 2440, data sets 2330 and/orjob flow definitions 2220.

As each of the federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q, 2566 r, 2566 u and 2566 xare created, each may be given a human-readable FA identifier 2568 thatmay be supplied in the requests that are received to create each of themand/or that may be supplied and/or generated in any of a variety ofother ways, including through any of a variety of user interfaces. Also,as previously discussed, regardless of the manner or circumstances inwhich each of the depicted federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q, 2566 r, 2566u or 2566 x is instantiated, in at least some embodiments, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused to generate a global FA identifier 2569for each of these federated areas automatically as part of each of theirinstantiations. Again, this may be deemed desirable in order to haveeach of these federated areas be immediately distinguishable by such apractically unique identifier from the moment that each begins itsexistence. In this way, such global FA identifiers 2569 may beimmediately available to be used to identify each of these federatedareas within both the federated area parameters 2536 and the portal data2539.

FIG. 15F depicts various examples of designating at least a portion of afederated area 2566 as a storage location that serves a specializedpurpose. As depicted, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may be caused to instantiate different ones of thesedepicted examples of a portion of a federated area 2566 by the executionof the executable instructions of different components of the controlroutine 2540. As also depicted, such designated portions of a federatedarea 2566 may also be caused to co-exist with another portion of thefederated area 2566 that may not be so designated, and which may be usedsimply for the storage of objects 2220, 2270, 2330, 2370, 2440, 2470,2720 and/or 2770, and/or used for the storage of data object blocks2336, 2336 d, 2376, 2376 d, 2776 and/or 2776 d that each form a portionof a data object 2330, 2330 d, 2370, 2370 d, 2770 and/or 2770 d,respectively.

As has already been discussed, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may be caused by execution of the federated areacomponent 2546 to instantiate a transfer area 2666 within a federatedarea 2566 as part of providing a mechanism by which the processor(s)2550 may be caused by execution of one or more of the admissioncomponent 2542, the selection component 2543 and/or the databasecomponent 2545 to exchange objects between the one or more federateddevices 2500 and other devices. Again, such transfers may be triggeredas part of synchronizing the contents of the transfer area 2666 with thecontents of a corresponding transfer area within another device (e.g.,the transfer area 2166 or 2866 instantiated within another device 2100or 2800, respectively, depicted in FIG. 13D).

As will be discussed in greater detail, the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 may be caused by execution of thefederated area component 2546 to instantiate a container 2565 within afederated area 2566 within each of one or more storage devices 2600and/or within the storage 2560 of each of one or more federated devices2500 to provide objects along with one or more components of the controlroutine 2540 (e.g., the performance component 2544, as depicted) neededto enable the processor(s) 2650 of those one or more storage devices2600 and/or the processor(s) 2550 of those one or more federated devices2500 to perform a job flow. Alternatively or additionally, and as willalso be discussed in greater detail, the processor(s) 2550 of the one ormore federated devices 2500 may be caused by execution of the federatedarea component 2546 and/or the performance component 2544 (or by both incooperation) to instantiate a container 2565 within a federated area2566 to enable the processor(s) 2550 to monitor and verify the inputand/or output operations performed as a result of the execution of atask routine 2440.

As will also be discussed in greater detail, the processor(s) 2550 ofthe one or more federated devices 2500 may be caused by execution of theperformance component 2544 to instantiate a shared memory space 2665within a federated area 2566 as part of a mechanism to perform one ormore conversions of data object(s) between primary and secondary formsassociated with primary and secondary programming languages,respectively, as part of an approach to accommodating the use of taskroutines 2440 written in differing programming languages in performing ajob flow.

FIG. 15G depicts an example of designating at least a portion of each ofmultiple federated areas 2566 as a transfer area 2666. In someembodiments, and as previously discussed in reference to FIG. 13D, suchmultiple transfer areas 2666 may be defined to enable the automatedexchange, through synchronization, of the objects between those multipletransfer areas 2666 and counterpart transfer areas 2166 or 2866 definedwithin a storage 2160 or 2860 of another device 2100 or 2800,respectively, as an approach to sharing a set of objects that aredistributed across a hierarchy of federated areas 2566. Again, suchembodiments may be deemed desirable as a mechanism to enable acollaboration on the development of a relatively complex analysisroutine between developers who are familiar with federated areas 2566and the programming language(s) that may be associated therewith andother developers who are not familiar with federated areas 2566 and/orwith those programming language(s).

Alternatively or additionally, in other embodiments, the definition ofmultiple transfer areas 2666, one each in a different federated area2566, may be used to enable the automated transfer of specific objectsfrom one federated area 2566 to another in response to specificconditions having been met. Such embodiments may be deemed desirable asan approach to automating the development of at least a portion of ananalysis routine by causing the automated transfer of portions thereoffrom a federated area 2566 associated with one phase of developmentthereof to another as various thresholds of development, testing,accuracy, etc. are met.

FIG. 15H depicts an example embodiment of a synchronization relationshiphaving been put in place between a set of transfer areas 2666 definedwithin a corresponding set of federated areas 2566, and a set oftransfer areas 2166 or 2866 defined within a storage 2160 or 2860,respectively. More specifically, FIG. 15H depicts a multitude ofsynchronization relationships involving a triplet of transfer areas 2666q, 2666 u and 2666 x defined within the triplet of federated areas 2566q, 2566 u and 2566 x, respectively, of the example linear hierarchy offederated 2666 introduced in FIG. 15A, and involving a correspondingtriplet of transfer areas 2166 q/2866 q, 2166 u/2866 u and 2166 x/2866 xdefined within a storage 2160 or 2860 of a device 2100 or 2800,respectively.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, in the development of arelatively complex analysis routine, it may be deemed desirable toorganize the numerous portions of executable instructions and/or othersupporting portions thereof into a set hierarchy of directories and/orsubdirectories that reflect distinct portions of the analysis routinethat may be the responsibility of different groups of developers (e.g.,a user interface group, a file management group, a core analysis group,etc.). In some embodiments, it may be that the hierarchical arrangementof directories and/or subdirectories is reflective of differing levelsof security access to different portions of the executable instructions(e.g., where particular intellectual property rights may be involved forone or more particular portions), and/or it may be that the hierarchicalarrangement of directories and/or subdirectories may be reflective of anorder of compilation and/or linking of at least a subset of theexecutable instructions. Thus, and as previously discussed, in acollaborative development of a relatively complex analysis routinebetween developers of two different development environments (oneentailing the use of federated areas 2566 and associated primaryprogramming language, and one not entailing the use of one or both ofthose), it may be desirable to enable sharing of objects that are storedacross multiple ones of such directories and/or subdirectories, andacross corresponding multiple ones of federated areas 2566 that may beorganized into a hierarchy that corresponds (to at least some degree) tosuch a hierarchy of directories and/or subdirectories. To enable this,and as depicted, each of the transfer areas 2166 or 2866 may be definedto encompass storage space associated with a directory or sub-directory,and may be synchronized with a corresponding transfer area 2666 that isdefined within a federated area 2566 that is meant to correspond to thatsame directory or sub-directory. Also, the position of each suchdirectory or subdirectory within its hierarchy of directories and/orsubdirectories may be made to correspond to the position of itscorresponding federated area 2566 within its hierarchy of federatedareas 2566.

As also depicted in FIG. 15H, and as was earlier discussed in referenceto FIG. 15C, it may be deemed desirable to provide each federated area2566 in such a hierarchy of federated areas 2566 with a human-readablefederated area identifier 2568 that is in some way reflective of theposition of each federated area 2566 in the hierarchy, and therefore,may provide some indication of how to navigate among those federatedareas 2566 within the hierarchy. As a result, and as additionallydepicted in FIG. 15H, it may be that such human-readable federated areaidentifiers 2568 are also be reflective of the naming convention used inthe hierarchy of directories and/or sub-directories, as well as how tonavigate among those directories and/or subdirectories. Such acorrespondence in hierarchies and naming conventions between two suchenvironments may be deemed desirable to enable the different developersof two such environments to more easily refer to particular objects forwhich there may be corresponding copies and/or corresponding versions atsimilar locations within the corresponding hierarchies.

Turning to FIG. 15I, and as previously discussed in connection with FIG.13E, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 maybe caused to instantiate one or more federated areas 2566 that may eachbe entirely constrained to exist within the storage space provided by alocal file system 2661 implemented entirely within the storage 2660 of asingle one of the storage devices 2600 a-x. More precisely, each suchfederated area 2566 may, therefore, not span across the storage spacesprovided by multiple ones of the storage devices 2600 a-x in any way. Asdepicted, each such federated area 2566 may be limited to storingundivided objects 2220, 2270, 2330, 2370, 2440, 2470, 2720 and/or 2770.As also depicted, each such federated area 2566 may include one or morestorage locations designated as serving a specialized purpose, such as acontainer 2565, a shared memory space 2665 or a transfer area 2666. Asalso depicted, such storage of undivided objects may be within oroutside of such designated storage locations, or both.

Turning to FIG. 15J, and as previously discussed in connection with FIG.13F, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 maybe caused to instantiate one or more federated areas 2566 that may existwithin a storage space provided by the distributed file system 2669implemented to span portions of the storage 2660 of multiple ones of thestorage devices 2600 a-x. More precisely, each such federated area 2566may, therefore, span across the storage spaces provided by multiple onesof the storage devices 2600 a-x. As depicted, each such federated area2566 may be used to store undivided objects 2220, 2270, 2330, 2370,2440, 2470, 2720 and/or 2770. However, as also depicted, each suchfederated area 2566 may alternatively or additionally be used to storedata object blocks 2336, 2336 d, 2376, 2376 d, 2776 and/or 2776 d oflarge data sets 2330, 2330 d, 2370, 2370 d, 2770 and 2770 d,respectively, such that they are caused to span multiple ones of thestorage devices 2600 a-x. As also depicted, each such federated area2566 may include one or more storage locations designated as serving aspecialized purpose, such as a container 2565, a shared memory space2665 or a transfer area 2666. As also depicted, such storage ofundivided objects and/or data object blocks may be within or outside ofsuch designated storage locations, or both.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 15K, although not specificallydiscussed or depicted in either of FIG. 15I or 15J, embodiments of thedistributed processing system 2000 are possible in which a mixture ofdifferent federated areas 2566 may be instantiated in which one or moremay exist entirely within storage space provided by a single storagedevice 2600, while one or more others may span across storage spaceprovided by multiple storage devices 2600. As also more specificallydepicted in FIG. 15K, it may be that such federated areas 2566 may beinstantiated in which one or more may exist entirely within storagespace provided by a single federated device 2500, and/or in which one ormore may span across storage space provided by multiple federateddevices 2500 (either in lieu of or in addition to storage within one ormore storage devices 2600). Again, regardless of whether a particularfederated area 2566 exists within storage space provided by a singlefederated device 2500 or storage device 2600, or multiple federateddevices 2500 or multiple storage devices 2600, each such federated area2566 may include one or more storage locations designated as serving aspecialized purpose, such as a container 2565, a shared memory space2665 or a transfer area 2666. As also depicted, the storage of undividedobjects may be within or outside of such designated storage locations,or both.

FIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E, 16F, 16G, 16H, 16I, and 16J and 16K,together, illustrate the manner in which a set of objects may be used todefine and perform an example job flow 2200 fgh, as well as to documentthe resulting example performance 2700 afg 2 h of the example job flow2200 fgh. FIG. 16E additionally illustrates how a container 2565 andinformation incorporated into one of the task routines 2440 f and/orinto the job flow definition 2220 fgh may be used to verify thefunctionality of that task routine. FIG. 16F additionally illustrateshow a mid-flow data set 2370 fg may be converted between two forms 2370pfg and 2370 sfg amidst being exchanged between two task routines toaccommodate the use of different programming languages therebetween.FIG. 16G additionally illustrates the manner in which the job flowdefinition 2200 pfgh may be marked as associated with another job flowdefinition 2200 sfgh from which the job flow definition 2200 pfgh mayhave been derived by translation. FIG. 16I additionally illustrates themanner in which a job flow 2200 fgh that employs non-neuromorphicprocessing to perform a function may be marked as associated withanother job flow 2200 jk that employs neuromorphic processing to performthe same function and that was derived from the job flow 2200 fgh. FIGS.16J and 16K, together, additionally illustrate the manner in which thejob flow definition 2220 fgh may be generated as and/or from a DAG 2270fgh. For sake of ease of discussion and understanding, the same examplejob flow 2200 fgh and example performance 2700 afg 2 h of the examplejob flow 2200 fgh are depicted (or are at least associated with what isdepicted) throughout all of FIGS. 16A-K. Also, it should be noted thatthe example job flow 2200 fgh and example performance 2700 afg 2 hthereof are deliberately relatively simple examples presented herein forpurposes of illustration, and should not be taken as limiting what isdescribed and claimed herein to such relatively simple embodiments.

As depicted, the example job flow 2200 fgh specifies three tasks thatare to be performed in a relatively simple three-step linear orderthrough a single execution of a single task routine 2440 for each task,with none of those three tasks entailing the use of neuromorphicprocessing. Also, the example job flow 2200 fgh requires a single dataset as an input data object to the first task in the linear order, maygenerate and exchange a single data set between two of the tasks, andgenerates a single result report as an output data object of the lasttask in the linear order. As also depicted, in the example performance2700 afg 2 h of the example job flow 2200 fgh, task routines 2440 f,2440 g 2 and 2440 h are the three task routines selected to be executedto perform the three tasks. Also, a flow input data set 2330 a isselected to serve as the input data object, a mid-flow data set 2370 fgmay be generated and exchanged between two of the performed tasks as amechanism to exchange data therebetween, and a result report 2770 afg 2h is the output data object to be generated as an output of theperformance 2700 afg 2 h. Again, it should be noted that otherembodiments of a job flow are possible in which there may be many moretasks to be performed, many more data objects that serve as inputsand/or many more data objects generated as outputs. It should also benoted that other embodiments of a job flow are possible in which thereis a much more complex order of the performance of tasks that mayinclude parallel and/or conditional branches that may converge and/ordiverge.

Turning to FIGS. 16A and 16B, the job flow definition 2220 fgh for theexample job flow 2200 fgh may include a flow definition 2225 thatspecifies the three tasks to be performed, the order in which they areto be performed, and which of the three tasks is to accept a data objectas an input and/or generate a data object as an output. In specifyingthe three tasks to be performed, the flow definition 2225 may use flowtask identifiers 2241, such as the depicted flow task identifiers 2241f, 2241 g and 2241 h that uniquely identify each of the three tasks. Asdepicted, there may be just a single task routine 2440 f available amongone or more federated areas 2566 to which access is granted that is ableto perform the task specified with the flow task identifier 2241 f, andtherefore, the single task routine 2440 f may be the one task routinethat is assigned the flow task identifier 2241 f to provide anindication that it is able to perform that task. Also, there may bethree task routines 2440 g 1, 2440 g 2 and 2440 g 3 available among theone or more accessible federated areas 2566 that are each able toperform the task specified with the flow task identifier 2241 g, andtherefore, each may be assigned the same flow task identifier 2241 g.Further, there may be just a single task routine 2440 h available withinthe one or more accessible federated areas 2566 that is able to performthe task specified with the flow task identifier 2241 h, resulting inthe assignment of the flow task identifier 2241 h to the single taskroutine 2440 h.

As has been discussed, the job flow definition 2220 fgh specifies thetasks to be performed in a job flow, but does not specify any particulartask routine 2440 to be selected for execution to perform any particularone of those tasks during any particular performance of the job flow.Where there are multiple task routines 2440 that are capable ofperforming a particular task, a single one of those multiple taskroutines 2440 is selected for execution to do so, and the selection thatis made may, in part, depend on the nature of the request received toperform a job flow. More specifically, the selection of a particulartask routine 2440 for execution to perform each particular task may bebased on which task routine 2440 is the newest version to perform eachtask, and/or may be based on which task routine 2440 was used in aprevious performance of each task in a specified previous performance ofa job flow. As will be explained in detail, the selection criteria thatis used to select a task routine 2440 for each task may depend onwhether an entirely new performance of a job flow is requested or arepetition of an earlier performance of a job flow is requested. Asdepicted, in the example performance 2700 afg 2 h of the example jobflow 2200 fgh, the task routine 2440 g 2 is selected from among the taskroutines 2440 g 1, 2440 g 2 and 2440 g 3 for execution to perform thetask identified with the flow task identifier 2241 g.

Alternatively or additionally, and as previously explained in connectionwith FIGS. 15A-B, in situations in which objects needed for theperformance of a job flow are distributed among multiple federated areasthat are related by inheritance and/or priority relationships, theselection of a particular task routine 2440 to perform a task from amongmultiple task routines 2440 that are each capable of performing thatsame task may, in part, be dependent upon which federated area 2566 eachof such multiple task routines 2440 are stored within. By way ofexample, FIG. 16C depicts an example situation in which objects neededto perform the job flow 2200 fgh are distributed among the federatedareas 2566 m, 2566 u and 2566 x in the example hierarchical tree offederated areas first introduced in FIGS. 15B-C. More specifically, inthis example, the data set 2330 a and the task routine 2440 g 2 arestored within the private federated area 2566 m; the task routine 2440 g3 is stored within the intervening federated area 2566 u; and the dataset 2330 b and the task routines 2440 f, 2440 g 1 and 2440 h are storedwithin the base federated area 2566 x.

As previously discussed in reference to the linear hierarchy depicted inFIG. 15A, a “perspective” from which a job flow is to be executed maybased on which federated areas 2566 are made accessible to the deviceand/or device user makes the request for the performance to occur. Asdepicted, where the request to perform the job flow 2200 fgh is receivedfrom a user granted access to the private federated area 2566 m, as wellas to the base federated area 2566 x, but not granted access to any ofthe federated areas 2566 q, 2566 r or 2566 u, the search for objects touse in the requested performance may be limited to those stored withinthe private federated area 2566 m and the base federated area 2566 x.Stated differently, the perspective that may be automatically selectedfor use in determining which federated areas 2566 are searched forobjects may be that of the private federated area 2566 m, since theprivate federated area 2566 m is the one federated area to which theuser in this example has been granted access to that is subject to themost restricted degree of access. Based on this perspective, the privatefederated area 2566 m will be searched, along with the base federatedarea 2566 x, and along with any intervening federated areas 2566therebetween, if there were any federated areas 2566 therebetween.

As a result, the task routine 2440 g 3 stored within the interveningfederated area 2566 u is entirely unavailable for use in the requestedperformance as a result of the user having no grant of access to theintervening federated area 2566 u, and this then becomes the reason whythe task routine 2440 g 3 is not selected. In contrast, as a result ofan inheritance relationship between the private federated area 2566 mand the base federated area 2566 x, the data set 2330 b and each of thetask routines 2440 f, 2440 g 1 and 2440 h stored in the based federatedarea 2566 x may each be as readily available for being used in therequested performance of the job flow 2200 fgh as the data set 2330 aand the task routine 2440 g 2 stored in the private federated area 2566m. Therefore, the task routines 2440 f and 2440 h may be selected as aresult of being the only task routines available within either federatedarea 2566 m or 2566 x that perform their respective tasks. However,although both of the flow input data sets 2330 a and 2330 b may beequally available through that same inheritance relationship, a priorityrelationship also in place between the federated areas 2566 m and 2566 xmay result in the data set 2330 a being selected as the data set used asinput, since the flow input data set 2330 a is stored within the privatefederated area 2566 m, which is searched first for the objects neededfor the requested performance, while the flow input data set 2330 b isstored within the base federated area 2566 x, which is searched afterthe search of the private federated area 2566 m. The same combination ofinheritance and priority relationships in place between the federatedareas 2566 m and 2566 x may also result in the task routine 2440 g 2stored within the private federated area 2566 m being selected, insteadof the task routine 2440 g 1 stored within the base federated area 2566x.

Turning to FIGS. 16A and 16D, the job flow definition 2220 fgh mayinclude interface definitions 2224 that specify aspects of taskinterfaces 2444 employed in communications among task the routines 2440that are selected for execution to perform the tasks of the example jobflow 2200 fgh (e.g., the task routines 2440 f, 2440 g 2 and 2440 h).Such aspects may include quantity, type, bit widths, protocols, etc., ofparameters passed from one task routine 2440 to another as part ofcommunications among task routines 2440 during their execution. As alsodepicted, the interface definitions 2224 may alternatively oradditionally specify aspects of data interfaces 2443 between taskroutines 2440 and any data objects that may be employed as an input to aperformance (e.g., the flow input data set 2330 a) and/or that may begenerated as an output of a performance (e.g., the result report 2770afg 2 h) of the example job flow 2200 fgh, such as the data exampleperformance 2700 afg 2 h. The interface definitions 2224 may alsospecify aspects of data interfaces 2443 employed by one task routine2440 to generate a data object to convey a relatively large quantity ofdata to another task routine 2440 (e.g., the mid-flow data set 2370 fgdepicted with dotted lines, and depicted as generated by task routine2440 f for use as an input to task routine 2440 g 2), and may specifyaspects of the data interface 2443 employed by the other task routine2440 to retrieve data from that same data object. Since many of thespecified aspects of the data interfaces 2443 may necessarily be closelyassociated with the manner in which data items are organized and madeaccessible within data objects, the interface definitions 2224 mayinclude organization definitions 2223 that specify such organizationaland access aspects of the data objects. Thus, as depicted in FIG. 16D,where each of the data sets 2330 a and 2370 fg (if any are present), andthe result report 2770 afg 2 h include a two-dimensional array, theorganization definitions 2223 may specify various aspects of the dataitems 2339 (e.g., data type, bit width, etc.), the rows 2333 and/or thecolumns 2334 for each these data objects.

As previously discussed, the job flow definition 2220 fgh specifiestasks to be performed and not the particular task routines 2440 to beselected for execution to perform those tasks, which provides theflexibility to select the particular task routines 2440 for each taskdynamically at the time a performance takes place. Similarly, the jobflow definition 2220 fgh also does not specify particular data objectsto be used, which provides the flexibility to select the particular dataobjects with which the job flow 2200 fgh is to be used dynamically atthe time a performance takes place. However, the interface definitions2224 do specify aspects of the interfaces among the task routines 2440,and between the task routines 2440 and data objects. The specificationof aspects of the interfaces 2443 and/or 2444 may be deemed desirable toensure continuing interoperability among task routines 2440, as well asbetween task routines 2440 and data objects, in each new performance ofa job flow 2200, even as new versions of one or more of the taskroutines 2440 and/or new data objects are created for use in laterperformances.

In some embodiments, new versions of task routines 2440 that may becreated at a later time may be required to implement the interfaces 2443and/or 2444 in a manner that exactly matches the specifications of thoseinterfaces 2443 and/or 2444 within a job flow definition 2220. However,in other embodiments, a limited degree of variation in theimplementation of the interfaces 2443 and/or 2444 by newer versions oftask routines 2440 may be permitted as long as “backward compatibility”is maintained in retrieving input data objects or generating output dataobjects through data interfaces 2443, and/or in communications withother task routines through task interfaces 2444. As will be explainedin greater detail, the one or more federated devices 2500 may employ thejob flow definitions 2220 stored within one or more federated areas 2566to confirm that new versions of task routines 2440 correctly implementtask interfaces 2444 and/or data interfaces 2443. By way of example, insome embodiments, it may be deemed permissible for an interface 2443 or2444 that receives information to be altered in a new version of a taskroutine 2440 to accept additional information from a newer data objector a newer version of another task routine 2440 if that additionalinformation is provided, but to not require the provision of thatadditional information, since older data objects don't provide thatadditional information. Alternatively or additionally, by way ofexample, it may be deemed permissible for an interface 2443 or 2444 thatoutputs information to be altered in a new version of a task routine2440 to output additional information as an additional data objectgenerated as an output, or to output additional information to a newerversion of another task routine 2440 in a manner that permits thatadditional information to be ignored by an older version of that othertask routine 2440.

Returning to FIGS. 16A and 16B, an example instance log 2720 afg 2 hthat is generated as result a of the example performance 2700 afg 2 h ofthe example job flow 2200 fgh is depicted. Although the job flowdefinition 2220 fgh does not specify particular data objects or taskroutines 2440 to be used in performances of the example job flow 2200fgh, the example instance log 2720 afg 2 h does include such details, aswell as others, concerning the example performance 2700 afg 2 h. Thus,the example instance log 2720 afg 2 h includes the job flow identifier2221 fgh for the example job flow definition 2220 fgh; the task routineidentifiers 2441 f, 2441 g 2 and 2441 h for the particular task routines2440 f, 2440 g 2 and 2440 h, respectively, that were executed in theexample performance 2700 afg 2 h; the data object identifier 2331 a forthe data set 2330 a used as an input data object; and the result reportidentifier 2771 afg 2 h for the result report 2770 afg 2 h generatedduring the example performance 2700 afg 2 h. As has been discussed, theexample instance log 2720 afg 2 h is intended to serve as a record ofsufficient detail concerning the example performance 2700 afg 2 h as toenable all of the objects associated with the example performance 2700afg 2 h to be later identified, retrieved and used to repeat the exampleperformance 2700 afg 2 h. In contrast, the job flow definition 2220 fghis intended to remain relatively open-ended for use with a variety ofdata objects and/or with a set of task routines 2440 that may changeover time as improvements are made to the task routines 2440.

Turning to FIG. 16E and as previously discussed, in some embodiments,the input/output behavior of each of the task routines 2440 that may beselected and executed in performing the job flow 2200 fgh may beverified by being monitored during the performance of the job flow 2200fgh, with the observed input/output behavior being compared to theexpected input/output behavior. More specifically and as depicted, thecontrol routine 2540 may include a performance component 2544 operableon the processor 2550 to execute executable instructions 2447 of taskroutines 2440 to perform the tasks specified in a job flow definition2220, and in so doing, the performance component 2544 may additionallyinstantiate a container 2565 within which task routines may be placed toenable their input/output behavior to be monitored, controlled and/orcompared to expected behavior. Still more specifically, and as depictedin FIG. 16E as an example, the interface definitions 2224 within the jobflow definition 2220 fgh, the comments 2448 of the task routine 2440 fand/or the executable instructions 2447 that implement each of thedepicted interfaces 2443 and 2444 of the task routine 2440 f may beemployed by the performance component 2544 as a reference for thoseinterfaces of the task routine 2440 f. The performance component 2544may use such a reference to instantiate, within a federated area 2566, acontainer 2565 within which the task routine 2440 f is executed during aperformance of the job flow 2200 fgh. In some embodiments, theinstantiation of the container 2565 may be done to create an executionenvironment for the task routine for the sole purpose of monitoring whatinput/output accesses are made by the task routine 2440 f to enable acomparison to be made between observed input/output behavior of the taskroutine 2440 f and the input/output behavior that is expected of thetask routine 2440 f based on the reference description of aspects of theinterfaces 2443 and/or 2444 provided by the comments 2448, theexecutable instructions 2447 and/or the interface definitions 2224. Inother embodiments, the instantiation of the container environment 2565may be done to also create an execution environment for the task routine2440 f in which the expected input/output behavior is actually enforcedupon the task routine 2440 f such that any aberrant input/outputbehavior by the task routine 2440 f is not allowed to be fully performed(e.g., attempted input/output accesses to data structures and/orinput/output devices that go beyond the expected input/output behaviorare prevented from actually taking place). Where the observedinput/output behavior conforms to the expected input/output behavior,the input/output functionality of the task routine 2440 f may be deemedto have been verified.

Regardless of whether the container 2565 enforces expected input/outputbehavior in addition to monitoring the input/output behavior thatactually occurs, the results of the comparison between the observedinput/output behavior and the expected input/output behavior (e.g.,whether the input/output functionality of the task routine 2440 f isverified, or not) may be recorded in any of a variety of ways. By way ofexample, in embodiments in which each task routine 2440 is stored withinone or more federated areas 2566 through use of a database to enablemore efficient retrieval of task routines 2440, the results of thiscomparison for the task routine 2440 f may be marked in an entrymaintained by such a database for the task routine 2440 f. Alternativelyor additionally, where a DAG 2270 is generated that includes a visualrepresentation of the task routine 2440 f, that representation may beaccompanied by a visual indicator of the results of this comparison.

Turning to FIG. 16F, as previously discussed, in some embodiments, thecombination of task routines 2440 that are executed during theperformance of a job flow 2200 may include task routines with executableinstructions 2447 and/or comments 2448 written in differing programminglanguages with the differing syntax, vocabulary, formatting and/orsemantic features thereof. More specifically, and as depicted, the taskroutine 2440 f may have been written in a primary programming languagethat is normally interpreted by the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 at runtime, such that the task routine 2440 f isdesignated as task routine 2440 pf. Therefore, within the task routine2440 pf, the executable instructions 2447 p may be written in theprimary programming language, and the comments 2448 p may be writtenwith the syntax used to distinguish comments from executableinstructions in the primary programming language. As also depicted, thetask routine 2440 g 2 may have been written in a secondary programminglanguage, such that the task routine 2440 g 2 is designated as taskroutine 2440 sg 2. The secondary programming language may not be onethat is normally interpreted by the processor(s) 2550, but may still beamong a set of pre-selected secondary programming languages that theprocessor(s) 2550 may still be capable of interpreting during runtime,either in addition to or in lieu of the primary programming language.Therefore, within the task routine 2440 sg 2, the executableinstructions 2447 s may be written in the secondary programminglanguage, and the comments 2448 s may be written with the syntax used todistinguish comments from executable instructions in the secondaryprogramming language.

As will be familiar to those skilled in the art, among the differencesbetween different programming languages may be support for differentdata types and/or differences in array types, including differences indata types of items of data within arrays and/or differences inaccessing items of data therein. Thus, although the executableinstructions 244′7 p of the task routine 2440 pf may have been writtento implement the depicted data output interface 2443 to generate themid-flow data set 2370 fg as an output, and although the executableinstructions 2447 s of the task routine 2440 sg 2 may have been writtento implement the depicted data input interface 2443 to receive themid-flow data set 2370 fg as an input, there may be differences in theform of the mid-flow data set 2370 fg as it is output from the form ofthe mid-flow data set 2370 fg that is needed to be accepted as input.More specifically, the mid-flow data set 2370 may be output in a formdesignated as the mid-flow data set 2370 pfg that has one or moreparticular details of its structure being dictated by the use of theprimary programming language in the executable instructions 244′7 p thatdiffer somewhat from the form designated as the mid-flow data set 2370sfg that is needed to accommodate the use of the secondary programminglanguage in the executable instructions 2447 s.

To resolve such differences, the performance component 2544 may performa conversion of data structure and/or data type (e.g., serialization orde-serialization) of the mid-flow data set 2370 fg from its 2370 pfgform to its 2370 sfg form during runtime. More precisely, theperformance component 2544 may temporarily instantiate a shared memoryspace 2665 within which one of these two forms of the mid-flow data set2370 may be temporarily stored during the performance of the job flow2200 fgh. As has been discussed, it may be deemed desirable to storemid-flow data sets 2370 that are generated during the performance of ajob flow as part of enabling a subsequent analysis of the performance ofindividual tasks of that job flow by having the mid-flow data setsthereof 2370 preserved in federated area(s) 2566 along with otherobjects associated with that job flow. With the particular programminglanguage in which the executable instructions 244′7 p of the taskroutine 2440 pf having been designated as the primary programminglanguage, it may be deemed preferable to store the mid-flow data set2370 fg in the form 2370 pfg in which it was output by the task routine2440 pf, and to not consume valuable storage space in a federated area2566 by also storing the other form 2370 sfg. Thus, while the mid-flowdata set 2370 fg may be persisted in a federated area 2566 in the form2370 pfg, the other form 2370 sfg may be discarded as part ofun-instantiating the shared memory space 2665 when the performance ofthe job flow 2200 fgh is completed.

Turning to FIG. 16G, as previously discussed, it may be that portion(s)of one or more objects of a job flow 2200 were originally written in asecondary programming language that differs from the primary programminglanguage that is relied upon by the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 to perform job flows 2200. In such situations,and as will be discussed in more detail, such portions of such objectsmay be translated from such a secondary programming language and to theprimary programming language, and this may result in the generation of atranslated form of each of such objects in which the portion(s) writtenin the secondary programming language are replaced with correspondingportions in the primary programming language. It may be deemed desirableto be able to trace where a translated form of an object came from byincluding an identifier of the original form of the object from whichthe translated form was generated.

More specifically, it may be that portions of the job flow definition2220 fgh introduced in FIG. 16A were originally written in a secondaryprogramming language as the job flow definition 2220 sfgh. As depicted,such portions may include the depicted interface definitions 2224 s(which may include the organization definitions 2223 s) and/or the GUIinstructions 2229 sfgh. As depicted, such portions may be translatedfrom the secondary programming language to the primary programminglanguage that will be utilized during the performance 2700 afg 2 h(e.g., the interface definitions 2224 s and/or the GUI instructions 2229sfgh may be translated to generate the interface definitions 2224 pand/or the GUI instructions 2229 pfgh, respectively). In so doing, aform of the job flow definition 2220 fgh written in the primaryprogramming language as the job flow definition 2220 pfgh may begenerated from the secondary form 2220 sfgh. As a measure to enableaccountability for the accuracy of the translation(s) that are soperformed, the primary form 2220 pfgh may be generated to additionallyinclude the job flow identifier 2221 sfgh that identifies the secondaryform 2220 sfgh. Additionally, it may be that the secondary form 2220sfgh is maintained in a federated area 2566 along with the primary form2220 pfgh.

It may also be that other portions of the job flow definition 2220 sfghmay be written in the secondary programming language in the sense thatthey are written as comments that are written in a manner that adheresto the syntax of the secondary programming languages as comments. Thus,while not actually including executable instructions, such otherportions may still be regarded as having been written in the secondaryprogramming language. As depicted, such other portions may include thedepicted job flow identifier 2221 sfgh and/or the flow definition 2225s. As also depicted, such other portions may be translated from thesecondary programming language to the primary programming language thatwill be utilized during the performance 2700 afg 2 h (e.g., the job flowidentifier 2221 sfgh and/or the flow definition 2225 s may be translatedto generate the job flow identifier 2221 pfgh and/or the flow definition2225 p, respectively). More precisely, the syntax of such portions maybe translated from the syntax for comments written in the secondaryprogramming language and into the syntax for comments written in theprimary programming language.

Turning to FIG. 16H and as previously discussed, in some embodiments,the processing resources of multiple devices 2600 may be employed toperform a job flow (e.g., the job flow 2200 fgh) as an approach toavoiding the transmission of a large data set (e.g., the flow input dataset 2330 a) from the multiple storage devices 2600 and to the one ormore federated devices 2500 to enable the processing resources of theone or more federated devices 2500 to be so used. Again, making such useof the processing resources of the multiple storage devices 2600 may bedeemed desirable to avoid incurring the overhead of transmitting such alarge data set to the one or more federated devices 2500, as theincurring of such overhead may overwhelm any benefit that may berealized by using what may be superior processing resources incorporatedinto the one or more federated devices 2500.

However, as also previously discussed, while such a large data set maybe stored in a manner that spans multiple storage devices such that eachof those multiple storage devices has local access to at least one blockof that data set, other objects required to perform the job flow may besufficiently small in size (e.g., smaller than a predetermined thresholdsize) that they may each have been stored as an undivided object withinstorage space provided by a single storage device. Such smaller objectsmay be stored in different storage devices and/or in storage device(s)other than the multiple storage devices in which the blocks of the dataset are stored. Still further, it may be that none of the multiplestorage devices currently store any copies of any routine that may berequired to control and/or cause the performance of a job flow (e.g.,the performance component 2544 of the control routine 2540).

To address such issues, the one or more federated devices 2500 mayretrieve each of the other (smaller) objects required perform the jobflow, and may generate a container 2565 within which the one or morefederated devices may include the other objects (e.g., the job flowdefinition 2220 fgh and one or more task routines, such as the taskroutine 2440 f, as depicted) within the container 2565, along with acopy of such routines (e.g., the performance routine 2544, as depicted).The one or more federated devices 2500 may then transmit a copy of thecontainer 2565, including all of such contents, to each of the multiplestorage devices 2600 in which a block of the large data set is stored toenable the multiple storage devices 2600 to perform the job flow, atleast partially in parallel, using the block(s) of the large data setlocally stored within each as an input.

As has additionally been discussed, as a result of such at leastpartially parallel performances by each of the multiple storage devices2600, a block of data of another data set may be generated (e.g., thedepicted data object block 2376 fg) within each of the multiple storagedevices 2600 for each block of the large data set that is stored therein(e.g., for each one of the depicted data object block 2336 d). As partof storing the data object to which these newly generated blocks belong(e.g., the depicted mid-flow data set 2370 fg), each of these newlygenerated blocks may be provided to the one or more federated devices2500 to be assembled together (e.g., in a reduction operation) to formnewly generated data object. The one or more federated devices 2500 maythen analyze the resulting assembled data object to determine whether itis to be stored as an undivided object or in a distributed manner.

Turning for FIG. 16I, a new job flow that employs neuromorphicprocessing (i.e., uses a neural network to implement a function) may bederived from an existing job flow that does not employ neuromorphicprocessing (i.e., does not use a neural network, and instead, uses theexecution of a series of instructions to perform the function). This maybe done as an approach to creating a new job flow that is able to beperformed much more quickly (e.g., by multiple orders of magnitude) thanan existing job flow by using a neural network in the new job flow toperform one or more tasks much more quickly than may be possible throughthe non-neuromorphic processing employed in the existing job flow.However, as those skilled in the art will readily recognize, such aneural network may need to be trained, and neuromorphic processingusually requires the acceptance of some degree of inaccuracy that isusually not present in non-neuromorphic instruction-based processing inwhich each step in the performance of a function is explicitly set forthwith executable instructions.

Such training of a neural network of such a new job flow may entail theuse of a training data set that may be assembled from data inputs anddata outputs of one or more performances of an existing job flow. Such atraining data set may then be used, through backpropagation and/or otherneuromorphic training techniques, to train the neural network. Further,following such training, the degree of accuracy of the neural network inone or more performances of the new job flow may be tested by comparingdata outputs of the existing and new job flows that are derived fromidentical data inputs provided to each. Presuming that the new job flowincorporating use of the neural network is deemed to be accurate enoughto be put to use, there may still, at some later time, be an occasionwhere the functionality and/or accuracy of the new job flow and/or theneural network may be deemed to be in need of an evaluation. On such anoccasion, as an aid to ensuring accountability for the development ofthe new job flow and/or the neural network, it may be deemed desirableto provide an indication of what earlier job flow(s) and/or dataobject(s) were employed in training and/or in testing the new job flowand/or the neural network.

FIG. 16I provides a view of aspects of a example job flow 2200 jk thatemploys neuromorphic processing (i.e., employs one or more neuralnetworks), an example job flow definition 2220 jk that defines the jobflow 2200 jk, an example performance 2700 ajk of the job flow 2200 jk,and a corresponding example instance log 2720 ajk that documents theperformance 2700 ajk. This view is similar to the view provided by FIG.16A of aspects of the earlier discussed example job flow 2200 fgh thatdoes not employ neuromorphic processing (i.e., employs no neuralnetworks), the job flow definition 2220 fgh that defines the job flow2200 fgh, the example performance 2700 afg 2 h of the job flow 2200 fgh,and the example instance log 2720 afg 2 h that documents the performance2700 afg 2 h. As depicted in FIG. 16I, the job flow definition 2220 jkmay be defined to include a first task able to be performed by a taskroutine 2440 j that entails the use of neural configuration data 2371 j,and a second task able to be performed by a task routine 2440 k. Thetask performable by the task routine 2440 j may be that of using theneural network configuration data 2371 j to instantiate a one or moreneural networks (not specifically shown), and the task performable bythe task routine 2440 k may be that of using those one or more neuralnetworks to cause the job flow 2200 jk to perform the same function asthe job flow 2200 fgh.

The neural network configuration data 2371 j may define hyperparametersand/or trained parameters that define at least one neural networkemployed in the job flow 2200 jk after the at least one neural networkhas been trained. By way of example, the neural network configurationdata 2371 j may define hyperparameters and/or trained parameters foreach neural network in an ensemble of neural networks (e.g., a chain ofneural networks). Regardless of how many neural networks are associatedwith the neural network configuration data 2371 j, the neural networkconfiguration data 2371 j may be deemed and/or handled as an integralpart of the depicted example task routine 2440 j for purposes of storageamong one or more federated areas 2566. In such embodiments, theexecutable instructions 2447 of the task routine 2440 j may include someform of link (e.g., a pointer, identifier, etc.) that refers to theneural network configuration data 2371 j as part of a mechanism to causethe retrieval and/or use of the neural network configuration data 2371 jalongside the task routine 2440 j. Alternatively, in such embodiments,the task routine 2440 j may wholly integrate the neural networkconfiguration data 2371 j as a form of directly embedded data structure.

However, in other embodiments, the neural network configuration data2371 j may be incorporated into and/or be otherwise treated as amid-flow data set 2370 j that may be stored among multiple data sets2330 and/or 2370 within one or more federated areas 2566, includingbeing subject to at least a subset of the same rules controlling accessthereto as are applied to any other data set 2330 and/or 2370. In suchother embodiments, the same techniques normally employed in selectingand/or specifying a data set 2330 or 2370 as an input to a task routine2440 in a performance of a job flow 2200 may be used to specify theneural network configuration data 2371 j as the mid-flow data set 2370 jserving as an input to the task routine 2440 j. In this way, the atleast one neural network defined by the configuration data 2371 j may begiven at least some degree of protection against deletion, may be madeavailable for use in multiple different job flow flows (including otherjob flows that may perform further training of that at least one neuralnetwork that yield improved versions that may also be so stored), and/ormay be documented within one or more instance logs as having beenemployed in one or more corresponding performances of job flows 2200.

It should be noted that, although the neural network configuration data2371 j is depicted and discussed herein as being designated and treatedas the depicted mid-flow data set 2370 j, this is in recognition of thepossibility that, within a job flow 2200, one task routine 2440 maygenerate, in a training process, the neural network configuration data2371 j as a mid-flow data set 2370 j for use by another task routine2440 within the same job flow 2200. By way of example, a job flow 2200may initially use the neural network configuration data 2371 j as is,but may then cease that initial use and initiate a training mode inwhich the neural network configuration data 2371 j is modified as aresult of further training in response to a condition such as a failureto meet a threshold of accuracy during that initial use. However, otherembodiments are possible in which the neural network configuration data2371 j is generated within one job flow 2200 for use by one or moreother job flows 2200, and/or is generated in an entirely differentprocess that is not implemented as a job flow 2200 made up of multipletasks that are performed by the execution of multiple task routines2440. Thus, other embodiments are possible in which the neural networkconfiguration data 2371 j may be more appropriately regarded as havingbeen generated as a result report 2770 in the performance of a job flow2200 and/or may be more appropriately regarded as a flow input data set2330 to a job flow 2200.

It should also be noted that, although a single instance of neuralnetwork configuration data 2371 has been discussed as being treated as adata object (e.g., a data set 2330 or 2370, or a result report 2770),other embodiments are possible in which a single data object includesmultiple instances of neural network configuration data 2371. This maybe deemed desirable as a mechanism to keep together the hyperparametersand/or the trained parameters of a set of multiple neural networks thatare to be used together to perform a function, such as an ensemble ofneural networks. More precisely, while it may be that each neuralnetwork of a set of multiple neural networks is trained separatelyand/or sequentially, it may be deemed necessary to ensure success inusing those multiple neural networks together by keeping the neuralnetwork configuration data 2371 for each of those neural networkstogether. In this way, a situation in which the neural networkconfiguration data 2371 for a subset of those neural networks iserrantly deleted may be avoided, as well as avoiding a situation inwhich older and newer versions of the neural network configuration data2371 for different ones of those multiple neural networks are errantlyused together.

As also depicted in FIG. 16I, the job flow definition 2220 jk of theexample job flow 2200 jk may include the job flow identifier 2221 fgh asa form of link to the job flow definition 2220 fgh that defines theexample job flow 2200 fgh. Such a link to the job flow definition 2220fgh may be provided in the job flow definition 2220 jk in a situationwhere one or more performances (i.e., the example performance 2700 afg 2h) of the job flow 2200 fgh were used in training and/or in testing theat least one neural network of the job flow 2200 jk. Alternatively oradditionally, the instance log 2720 ajk that documents aspects of theexample performance 2700 afk of the example job flow 2200 jk may includethe instance log identifier 2721 afg 2 h as a link to the instance log2720 afg 2 h that documents the example performance 2700 afg 2 h. Such alink to the instance log 2720 afg 2 h may be provided in the instancelog 2720 ajk in a situation where the performance 2700 afg 2 h was usedin training and/or in testing the at least one neural network of the jobflow 2200 jk. Through the provision of such links, the fact that the jobflow 2200 fgh and/or the specific performance 2700 afg 2 h was used intraining and/or in testing the at least one neural network of the jobflow 2200 jk may be readily revealed, if at a later date, the job flowdefinition 2220 jk and/or the instance log 2720 ajk are retrieved andanalyzed as part of a later evaluation of the job flow 2200 jk. In thisway, some degree of accountability for how the at least one neuralnetwork of the job flow 2200 jk was trained and/or tested may be ensuredshould such training and/or testing need to be scrutinized.

Returning to both FIGS. 16A and 16I, as depicted, either or both of theexample job flow definitions 2220 fgh or 2220 jk may additionallyinclude GUI instructions 2229 fgh or 2229 jk, respectively. Aspreviously discussed, such GUI instructions 2229 incorporated into a jobflow definition 2220 may provide instructions for execution by aprocessor to provide a job flow GUI during a performance of thecorresponding job flow 2200. As earlier discussed, a job flow definition2220 may include flow task identifiers 2241 that identify the tasks tobe performed, but not particular task routines 2440 to perform thosetasks, as a mechanism to enable the most current versions of taskroutines 2440 to be used to perform the tasks. As also earlierdiscussed, a job flow definition 2220 may also define data interfaces2223 in a way that specifies characteristics of the inputs and/oroutputs for each task to be performed, but may not specify anyparticular data object 2330 as an approach to allowing data objects 2330that are to be used as inputs to a performance to be specified at thetime a performance is to begin. Through execution of GUI instructions2229, a job flow GUI may be provided that guides a user through anopportunity to specify one or more of the data objects 2330 that are tobe used as inputs. Alternatively or additionally, a job flow GUI may beprovided to afford a user an opportunity to specify the use of one ormore particular task routines 2440 as part of an effort to analyze theaccuracy and/or other aspects of a performance of a job flow 2200. Byway of example, the GUI instructions 2229 jk, when executed, may providea user an opportunity to specify the mid-flow data set 2370 j or anotherdata object 2330, 2370 or 2770 as the one that should be used to providethe neural network configuration data 2371 j to be used to instantiatethe at least one neural network to be used in a performance of the jobflow 2200 jk.

Turning to FIG. 16J, as has been discussed, DAGs 2270 may be generatedto provide visual representations of various objects, including tohighlight various details thereof, such as error conditions preventingtheir storage and/or use. Again, such objects include task routines2440, job flow definitions 2220 and/or instance logs 2720. Asexemplified using the job flow definition 2220 fgh and an associated DAG2270 fgh, at least where a DAG 2270 is generated to provide a visualrepresentation of a job flow described by a job flow definition 2220,such a DAG 2270 may be generated from that job flow definition 2220 toinclude most, if not all, of the same pieces of information concerningthat job flow as are needed within that job flow definition 2220 toenable the job flow definition 2220 to be used in a performance of thejob flow.

Thus, as depicted, the DAG 2270 fgh may include the job flow identifier2221 fgh, the flow definition 2225 and the interface definitions 2224,as does the job flow definition 2220 fgh, although the DAG 2270 fgh maynot include the GUI instructions 2229 fgh that may be included withinthe job flow definition 2220 fgh. However, as also depicted, while theDAG 2270 fgh may have much of the same content as the job flowdefinition 2220 fgh, the formatting and/or syntax of that content maydiffer therebetween. More specifically, the fact that the job flowdefinition 2220 fgh is meant to be used in the performance of the jobflow that it describes may lead to at least the interface definitions2224 being written in a selected programming language (e.g., the SASprogramming language), and may additionally lead to the job flowidentifier 2221 fgh and/or the flow definition 2225 being written to atleast conform to the syntax used for comments in the same selectedprogramming language. Also, the fact that the DAG 2270 fgh is meant tobe used to provide a visual representation of a job flow 2200 may leadto one or more of the job flow identifier 2221 fgh, the flow definition2225 and the interface definitions 2224 being written in a selected formof notation for the description of processes (e.g., BPMN). However, itshould be noted that other embodiments are possible in which the jobflow definition 2220 fgh and the DAG 2270 fgh are written using the samelanguage and syntax such that the job flow definition 2220 fgh and theDAG 2270 fgh may be directly interchangeable (although the DAG 2270 fghmay be generated to include a subset of the contents of the job flowdefinition 2220 fgh, such that it may not include such items as the GUIinstructions 2229 fgh). Indeed, in some of such embodiments, it may bethat the job flow definition 2220 fgh and the DAG 2270 fgh are one andthe same object as stored within a federated area 2566.

Regardless of whether the contents of job flow definitions 2220 andtheir corresponding DAGs 2270 are written in the same language, the factthat DAGs 2270 generated to provide visual representations of job flowdefinitions 2220 include many (if not all) of the same pieces ofinformation may enable job flow definitions 2220 to be generated fromsuch DAGs 2270 just as easily as such DAGs 2270 may be directlygenerated from job flow definitions 2220. As will be explained ingreater detail, advantage may be taken of this interchangeabilitybetween job flow definitions 2220 and such DAGs 2270 to enable new jobflow definitions 2220 that describe entirely new job flows to begenerated graphically by personnel who entirely lack programming skills.More specifically, a new job flow definition 2220 may be created bypersonnel though use of a graphical editor in which such personnelgraphically create a DAG 2270 that may also serve as the new job flowdefinition 2220 or from which the new job flow definition 2220 may beautomatically generated. In some of such embodiments, it may be thatsuch a graphical editor is used to combine at least portions of multiplepreexisting job flows to form a new job flow (e.g., the previouslydiscussed “superset” job flow) as a DAG 2270 from which a correspondingjob flow definition 2220 may be automatically generated.

Turning to FIG. 16K, in some embodiments, the interface definitions 2224within the job flow definition 2220 fgh may be derived as part of thegeneration of the DAG 2270 fgh based on comments 2448 about theinterfaces 2443/2444 and/or based on portions of the executableinstructions 2447 that implement the interfaces 2443/2444 within thetask routines 2440 f, 2440 g 2 and 2440 h. More specifically, it may bethat the job flow definition 2220 fgh is at least partially generatedfrom a parsing of comments 2448 and/or of portions of the executableinstructions 2447 descriptive of the input and/or output interfaces 2443and/or 2444 of one or more task routines 2440 that perform the functionsof the job flow 2200 fgh that the job flow definition 2220 fgh is todefine. In some embodiments, and as depicted, information concerninginput and/or output interfaces 2443 and/or 2444 from each of the taskroutines 2440 f, 2440 g 2 and 2440 h may be stored, at leasttemporarily, as macros 2470 f, 2470 g 2 and 2470 h, respectively,although it should be noted that other forms of intermediate datastructure may be used in providing intermediate storage of informationconcerning inputs and/or outputs. With all of such data structureshaving been generated, the information within each that concerns inputand/or output interfaces 2443 and/or 2444 may then be used to generatethe DAG 2270 fgh to include the interface definitions 2224. And it maybe that, from the interface definitions 2224, at least a portion of theflow definition 2225 is able to be derived.

FIGS. 17A, 17B, 17C, 17D, 17E and 17F, together, illustrate the mannerin which the one or more federated devices 2500 may selectively storeand organize objects within one or more federated areas 2566. FIGS.17A-C, together, illustrate aspects of the selective translation orconversion, of objects received from one or more source devices 2100, orfrom one or more reviewing devices 2800, as well as storage of thoseobjects within the one or more federated areas 2566. FIGS. 17D-F,together, illustrate aspects of assigning identifiers to objects storedwithin the one or more federated areas 2566.

Turning to FIG. 17A, as previously discussed, the one or more federateddevices 2500 may receive objects (e.g., job flow definitions 2220, DAGs2270, flow input data sets 2330, mid-flow data sets 2370, task routines2440, macros 2470, instance logs 2720 and/or result reports 2770) fromother devices 2100 and/or 2800 as part of an exchange of objects inresponse to a request to perform any of a variety of operations. Again,in executing the portal component 2549, the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 may be caused to operate one or more ofthe network interfaces 2590 to provide a portal accessible by otherdevices via the network 2999, and through which access may be granted bythe processor(s) 2550 to the one or more federated areas 2566. Alsoagain, any of a variety of network and/or other protocols may be used.Such requests may include requests to store one or more objectstransmitted therewith and/or for which pointer(s) may be transmittedtherewith; and/or requests to perform one or more job flows and/or oneor more individually specified tasks using one or more objectstransmitted therewith and/or for which pointer(s) may be transmittedtherewith.

Alternatively, and as also previously discussed, the one or morefederated devices 2500 may receive objects as a result of an ongoingsynchronization relationship instantiated between one or more transferareas 2666 within one or more federated areas 2566 and one or more othertransfer areas 2166 or 2866 within a storage 2160 or 2860, respectively.For each such transfer area 2666, the processor(s) 2550 of the one ormore federated devices 2500 may be caused by the federated areacomponent 2546 to refer to the federated area parameters 2536 forparameters in instantiating the transfer area 2666 within a federatedarea 2566, such as minimum and/or maximum size of the transfer area 2666and/or minimum or maximum percentage of the space within a federatedarea 2566 that is to be occupied by the transfer area 2666. Otherparameters that may be retrieved from the federated area parameters 2536may be specifications of one or more types of cooperation that may beused with the other device 2100 or 2800 with which a synchronizationrelationship is instantiated, such as whether the earlier describedpolling or volunteering approaches are to be used, and/or at whatminimum and/or maximum interval of time is to be allowed to elapsebetween each instance of exchange of status of objects within transferareas. Other parameters that may be so retrieved may includespecifications of a minimum or maximum quantity of objects to beexchanged when a transfer between transfer areas occurs.

Still another parameter concerning exchanges of objects between atransfer area 2666 within a federated area 2566 and a transfer area 2166or 2866 within a storage 2160 or 2860, respectively, that may beretrieved from the federated area parameters 2536 may be a specificationfor what minimum conditions must be met for such an automated transferof objects to be triggered. In some embodiments, the trigger may be oneor more of a minimum degree of change in an object (e.g., a minimumpercent change in size of a data object or a minimum extent of change inexecutable instructions of a task routine 2440), and/or a minimum numberof objects that must be involved in a change in status. Alternatively oradditionally, in other embodiments, the trigger for such an automatedtransfer may be a maximum amount of time to allow to elapse until thenext exchange of object(s) since the detection of a change in status ofany object.

Alternatively or additionally, and by way of example in still otherembodiments, the trigger may be associated with occurrences of objectsbeing “checked in” and/or “committed” in a formalized source codemanagement system. More specifically, and as will be familiar to thoseskilled in the art, where multiple developers are collaborating todevelop programming code for an analysis or other type of executableprogram, a source code management system may be put into place toimprove coordination thereamong. Such a source code management systemmay enforce some degree of control over which developer and/or how manydevelopers may be work with each one of different portions of executableinstructions at the same time as a proactive measure to avoid havingdifferent developers making conflicting changes to the same portion ofexecutable instructions. A developer may be required to “check out” aportion of executable instructions from the source control managementsystem to be allowed to make changes thereto, and this may serve tocause other developers to be prevented from also checking out that sameportion until the developer to which that portion is check outsubsequently “checks in” that same portion. Alternatively oradditionally, such a source code management system may track the changesmade to different portions of executable instructions by differentdevelopers as a way to provide the ability to roll back changes made byany one developer to a portion of executable instructions that is foundto “break” the ability to compile and/or interpret the executableinstructions of the analysis or other routine. There may be a compilingof the executable instructions of the analysis or other routine on arecurring interval of time which may be used as a mechanism to identifychanged portions of executable instructions that at least do not breakthe compiling of the full set of executable instructions such that theyare deemed acceptable to remain as part of the full set of executableinstructions such that those changes are deemed to be “committed”changes to the full set of executable instructions.

It may be that a portion of the storage 2160 of a source device 2100 ora portion the storage 2860 of a reviewing device 2800 is employed as thestorage at which a source code management system maintains a copy of allof the executable instructions of an analysis routine or other routineunder development by multiple developers who do not use the one or morefederated area(s) 2566 maintained by the one or more federated devices2500. Such developers may not have been granted access to a federatedarea 2566 and/or they may not be familiar with the use of federatedareas 2566. Meanwhile, there may also be other developers also involvedin developing the same analysis or other routine who do have access toand/or are familiar with the one or more federated areas 2566 maintainedby the one or more federated devices 2500. Such other developers may atleast partly rely on the enforcement of rules for the storage of objectsin federated areas 2566 as a mechanism to similarly instill a degree oforder in their collaboration among themselves in developing portions ofthe analysis or other routine. Thus, in this example embodiment, theremay be two different sets of developers collaborating on the developmentof the same analysis or other routine who are using two separate systemsof source code management to aid in coordinating their efforts.

As part of enabling collaboration between these two different groups ofdevelopers, as well as their differing systems of source codemanagement, the portion of the storage 2160 or 2860 of the device 2100or 2800 within which the source code management system maintains a copyof all of the executable instructions may be additionally designated asone or more transfer areas 2166 or 2866, respectively. Correspondingly,at least a portion of one or more federated areas 2566 that have beendesignated as the location in which portions of the executableinstructions of the analysis or other routine may also be stored mayeach be similarly designated as a transfer area 2666, and asynchronization relationship may be instantiated between each suchtransfer area 2666 and a counterpart other transfer area 2166 or 2866.With these transfer areas and their synchronization relationship(s)having been instantiated, it may be that the processor(s) 2550 of theone or more federated devices 2500 are caused to cooperate with theprocessor(s) 2150 of the device 2100 in which the transfer area(s) 2166are instantiated, or the processor(s) of the device 2800 in which thetransfer area(s) 2866 are instantiated, to use instances in whichchanges to portions of executable instructions have been “committed” orat least “checked in” as a trigger to cause the transfer of the affectedobject(s) (e.g., job flow definitions 2220 and/or task routines 2440that contain the changed executable instructions) between a transferarea 2666 and a corresponding other transfer area 2166 or 2866,respectively. In this way, collaboration among these two differentgroups of developers may be enabled through collaboration between thesystems that each relies upon to coordinate their development efforts inthis example embodiment.

As also previously discussed, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may selectively allow or disallow each receivedrequest (including a requests to instantiate a synchronizationrelationship) based on determinations of whether each of those requestsis authorized. Again, and more precisely, the processor(s) 2550 of theone or more federated devices 2500 may be caused by the portal component2549 to restrict what persons, devices and/or entities are to be givenaccess to one or more federated areas 2566. It should be noted that, inalternate embodiments, such control over whether access is granted maybe exerted by another device (not shown) that may be interposed betweenthe one or more federated devices 2500 and the network 2999 to serve asa gateway that controls access to the one or more federated devices2500, and thereby, controls access to the one or more federated areas.

Beyond selective granting of access to the one or more federated areas2566 (in embodiments in which the one or more federated devices 2500control access thereto), the processor(s) 2550 may be further caused byexecution of the portal component 2549 to restrict the types of accessgranted, depending on the identity of the user to which access has beengranted. Again, the portal data 2539 may indicate that different personsand/or different devices associated with a particular scholastic,governmental or business entity are each to be allowed different degreesand/or different types of access. One such person or device may begranted access to retrieve objects from within a federated area 2566,but may not be granted access to alter or delete objects, while anotherparticular person operating a particular device may be granted a greaterdegree of access that allows such actions. In embodiments in which thereis a per-object control of access, the one or more federated devices2500 (or the one or more other devices that separately control access)may cooperate with the one or more storage devices 2600 (if present) toeffect such per-object access control.

Regardless of the exact manner in which objects may be received by theone or more federated devices from other devices, and as also previouslydiscussed, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices2500 may be caused by the admission component 2542 to impose variousrestrictions on what objects may be stored within a federated area 2566,presuming that the processor(s) 2550 have been caused by the portalcomponent 2549 to grant access in response to the received request tostore objects. Some of such restrictions may be based on dependenciesbetween objects and may advantageously automate the prevention ofsituations in which one object stored in a federated area 2566 isrendered nonfunctional as a result of another object having not beenstored within the same federated area 2566 or within a federated area2566 that is related through an inheritance relationship such that it isunavailable.

By way of example, and as previously explained, such objects as job flowdefinitions 2220 include references to tasks to be performed. In someembodiments, it may be deemed desirable to prevent a situation in whichthere is a job flow definition 2220 stored within a federated area 2566that describes a job flow that cannot be performed as a result of therebeing no task routines 2440 stored within the same federated area 2566and/or within a related federated area 2566 that are able to perform oneor more of the tasks specified in the job flow definition 2220. Thus,where a request is received to store a job flow definition 2220, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused by the admission component 2542 to firstdetermine whether there is at least one task routine 2440 stored withinthe same federated area 2566 and/or within a related federated area 2566to perform each task specified in the job flow definition. If thereisn't, then the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the admissioncomponent 2542 to disallow storage of that job flow definition 2220within that federated area 2566, at least until such missing taskroutine(s) 2440 have been stored therein and/or within a relatedfederated area 2566 from which they would be accessible through aninheritance relationship. In so doing, and as an approach to improvingease of use, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused to transmit anindication of the reason for the refusal to inform an operator of thesource device 2100 of what can be done to remedy the situation.

Also by way of example, and as previously explained, such objects asinstance logs 2720 include references to such other objects as a jobflow definition, task routines executed to perform tasks, and dataobjects employed as inputs and/or generated as outputs. In someembodiments, it may also be deemed desirable to avoid a situation inwhich there is an instance log 2720 stored within a federated area 2566that describes a performance of a job flow that cannot be repeated as aresult of the job flow definition 2220, one of the task routines 2440,or one of the data objects referred to in the instance log 2720 notbeing stored within the same federated area 2566 and/or within a relatedfederated area 2566 from which they would also be accessible. Such asituation may entirely prevent a review of a performance of a job flow.Thus, where a request is received to store an instance log 2720, theprocessor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may becaused by the admission component 2542 to first determine whether all ofthe objects referred to in the instance log 2720 are stored within thesame federated area 2566 and/or a related federated area 2566 in whichthey would also be accessible, thereby enabling a repeat performanceusing all of the objects referred to in the instance log 2720. If thereisn't then the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the admissioncomponent 2542 to disallow storage of that instance log 2720 within thatfederated area 2566, at least until such missing object(s) have beenstored therein and/or within a related federated area 2566. Again, as anapproach to improving ease of use, the processor(s) 2550 may be causedto transmit an indication of the reason for the refusal to inform anoperator of the source device 2100 of what can be done to remedy thesituation, including identifying the missing objects.

Additionally by way of example, and as previously explained, suchobjects as job flow definitions 2220 may specify various aspects ofinterfaces among task routines, and/or between task routines and dataobjects. In some embodiments, it may be deemed desirable to prevent asituation in which the specification in a job flow definition 2220 of aninterface for any task routine that may be selected to perform aspecific task does not match the manner in which that interface isimplemented in a task routine 2440 that may be selected for execution toperform that task. Thus, where a request is received to store acombination of objects that includes both a job flow definition 2220 andone or more associated task routines 2440, the processor(s) 2550 may becaused to compare the specifications of interfaces within the job flowdefinition 2220 to the implementations of those interfaces within theassociated task routines 2440 to determine whether they sufficientlymatch. Alternatively or additionally, the processor(s) 2550 may becaused to perform such comparisons between the job flow definition 2220that is requested to be stored and one or more task routines 2440already stored within one or more federated areas 2566, and/or toperform such comparisons between each of the task routines 2440 that arerequested to be stored and one or more job flow definitions 2220 alreadystored within one or more federated areas 2566. If the processor(s) 2550determine that there is an insufficient match, then the processor(s)2550 may be caused to disallow storage of the job flow definition 2220and/or of the one or more associated task routines 2440. In so doing,and as an approach to improving ease of use, the processor(s) 2550 maybe caused to transmit an indication of the reason for the refusal toinform an operator of the source device 2100 of what can be done toremedy the situation, including providing details of the insufficiencyof the match.

As previously discussed, macros 2470 and DAGs 2270 may be generated frominformation concerning the inputs and/or outputs of one or more taskroutines 2440 such that, like a job flow definition 2200 and/or aninstance log 2720, each macro 2470 and each DAG 2270 is associated withone or more task routines 2440. As a result of such associations, it maybe deemed desirable to ensure that further analysis of the informationwithin each macro 2470 and/or DAG 2270 is enabled by requiring that theone or more task routines 2440 from which each is derived be availablewithin a federated area 2566 to be accessed. More specifically, inexecuting the admission component 2542, the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 may be caused to impose restrictions onthe storage of macros 2470 and/or DAGs 2270 that may be similar to thosejust discussed for the storage of job flow definitions 2200 and/orinstance logs 2720. Thus, in response to a request to store one or moremacros 2470 and/or one or more DAGs 2270, the processor(s) 2550 mayfirst be caused to determine whether the task routine(s) 2440 on whichthe information concerning inputs and/or outputs within each macro 2470and/or within each DAG 2270 may be based is stored within a federatedarea 2566 or is provided for storage along with each 2470 and/or eachDAG 2270 for storage. Storage of a macro 2470 or of a DAG 2270 may berefused if such associated task routine(s) 2440 are not already sostored and are also not provided along with the macro 2470 or DAG 2270that is requested to be stored.

Regardless of the exact manner in which a transfer of objects betweendevices and through the network 2999 is caused to occur, it should benoted that, depending on whether grids or other groups of devices are oneither end of the transfer, some degree of parallelism may be employedin carrying out the transfer. More specifically, at least where anobject is being transferred to or transferred from multiple ones of thefederated devices 2500 (e.g., a grid 2005 of the federated devices 2500)as a result of a federated area 2566 being maintained in a distributedmanner by multiple federated devices 2500, the transfer of the singleobject may be broken up into separate and at least partially paralleltransfers of different portions of the object to or from the multiplefederated devices 2500. This may be deemed desirable for the transfer oflarger objects, such as data objects (e.g., an flow input data set 2330or a result report 2770) that may be quite large in size. Further, inembodiments in which grids of devices are involved in both ends of atransfer of an object, it may be that the transfer is performed asmultiple transfers of portions of the object in which each such portionis transferred between a different pair of devices More precisely and byway of example, where a source device 2100 that transmitted a request tostore an object in a federated area 2566 is operated as part of a gridof the source devices 2100, the granting of access to store an object inthe federated area 2566 may result in each of multiple source devices2100 transmitting a different portion of the object to a different oneof multiple federated devices 2500 in at least partially paralleltransfers.

Turning to FIG. 17B, regardless of the exact manner in which the one ormore federated devices 2500 are caused to receive objects, and aspreviously discussed, it may be that some received objects includeportions that are written in one or more secondary programminglanguages, instead of in the primary programming language normallyutilized by the processor(s) 2550 during a performance of a job flow.More specifically, among the received objects may be task routines 2440in which at least executable instructions for the performance of a taskmay be written in a secondary programming language, and/or job flowdefinitions 2220 in which at least portion(s) thereof that define inputand/or output interfaces may be written in a secondary programminglanguage. As has been previously discussed, task routines 2440 thatinclude such portions written in a secondary programming language may bestored unchanged within federated area(s), and their executableinstructions may later be interpreted and/or compiled by an appropriateruntime interpreter or compiler at the time of their execution.

However, and as also previously discussed, where a job flow definition2220 s is received that includes at least input and/or output interfacedefinitions written in a secondary programming language, it may bedeemed desirable to generate a translated form 2220 p thereof in whichthose definitions are written in the primary programming language, andto store that translated form 2220 p within a federated area in lieu ofthe originally received form 2220 s. Again, this may be done to providedevelopers who are familiar with the primary programming language with aform of the job flow definition 2220 s that is written in the primaryprogramming language to improved the ease with which they are able toread and/or edit the job flow that is defined therein.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, as part of performingvarious comparisons of definitions for and/or implementations of inputand/or output interfaces, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may be caused by the admission component 2542 totranslate each portion of each job flow definition 2220 that definesinput and/or output interfaces, and each portion of executableinstructions of each task routine that implements input and/or outputinterfaces, into an intermediate representation, such as an intermediateprogramming language or a data structure. Thus, upon receipt of thedepicted job flow definition 2220 s, the portion(s) thereof that defineinput and/or output interfaces using a secondary programming languagemay already be translated into an intermediate representation forpurposes of making such comparisons. In such embodiments, theprocessor(s) may be further caused by the interpretation component 2547to further translate that intermediate representation into the primaryprogramming language as part of generating the corresponding inputand/or output interface definitions for the job flow definition 2220 pthat is generated as the translated form of the originally received jobflow definition 2220 s.

As previously discussed, job flow definitions 2220 may be derived fromDAGs 2270 and/or vice versa. As also previously discussed, embodimentsare possible in which different DAGs 2270 may be generated in differentlanguages, and such different languages may be the same differingprogramming languages as used in portions of job flow definitions 2220,or such different languages may be differing forms of notation (e.g.,BPMN versus other forms of notation) that may each be associated with adifferent programming language and/or a different developmentenvironment. Thus, like job flow definitions 2220, it may be that DAGs2270 exchanged between the one or more federated devices 2500 andanother device 2100 or 2800 may also be at least partially translatedsuch that, as depicted, for a DAG 2270 s stored within a transfer area2166 or 2866 within a storage 2160 or 2860, respectively, that employs asecondary programming language or secondary form of notation, there maybe a corresponding DAG 2270 p stored within a transfer area 2666 withina federated area 2566 that employs a primary programming language orprimary form of notation to provide the same view of the same job flow2200, of the same instance of performance of a job flow 2200, of thesame task and/or of the same task routine 2440.

The processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may becaused by the interpretation component 2547 to retrieve various rulesand/or other parameters for the performance of translations betweenprogramming language(s) from the interpretation rules 2537. Among suchrules and/or parameters may be a data structure providing across-reference of items of vocabulary between the primary programminglanguage and each of one or more secondary programming languages, and/ora data structure providing a cross-reference of items of syntaxtherebetween (e.g., punctuation, use of spacing, ordering of commandsand/or data, etc.). Alternatively or additionally, among such rulesand/or parameters may be a specification of the manner in which theorganization of data within data objects that is to be used in eitherdefining input and/or output interfaces in job flow definitions orimplementing input and/or output interfaces in task routines.

Turning to FIG. 17C, also regardless of the exact manner in which theone or more federated devices 2500 are caused to receive objects, and asalso previously discussed, it may be that a received data object, suchas the depicted example flow input data set 2330, is of a size that issufficiently large that it may not be possible (or at least, may bedeemed prohibitively difficult) to store all of it within a singlestorage device 2600 as an undivided object. Again, where such a dataobject is of such large size, it may be divided into multiple dataobject blocks as part of storing it in a distributed manner acrossmultiple storage devices 2600 a-x within a federated area 2566 thatspans storage spaces provided by the multiple storage devices 2600 a-xwithin a distributed file system 2669 implemented by at least themultiple storage devices 2600 a-x. Again, in some embodiments, stillanother storage device 2600 z may be employed to coordinate themaintenance of the distributed file system 2669, as well as tocoordinate the use of the storage space encompassed by the distributedfile system 2669 with the one or more federated devices 2500.

As previously discussed, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may be caused by the admission component 2542 tocompare the size of the flow input data set 2330 to a predeterminedthreshold size as part of determining whether the flow input data set islarge enough to be divided into multiple blocks for storage. If not,then the processor(s) 2550 may be caused simply to cooperate with one ofthe storage devices 2600 a-x to store the flow input data set 2330therein as an undivided object therein.

However, if the flow input data set 2330 is larger than thepredetermined threshold size, then the processor(s) 2550 of the one ormore federated devices 2500 may analyze the flow input data set 2330 todetermine whether it is in a distributable form in which it does notinclude a distinct metadata structure, in which the data items areorganized in a homogeneous manner throughout (e.g., a singletwo-dimensional array), and/or in which the homogeneous organization ofthe data items is of one of a preselected set of types of homogeneousorganization. If flow input data set 2330 is determined to already be indistributable form (such that the depicted distributable form 2330 d andthe originally received form 2330 are one and the same), then theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused simply to cooperate with the storagedevices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z to store the flow input data set 2330, asreceived, as the distributable form 2330 d in a distributed manner inwhich the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z divide the flow inputdata set 2330 into the depicted multiple data object blocks 2336 d thatare distributed thereamong for storage.

However, if the flow input data set 2330 is both larger than thepredetermined threshold size and not in distributable form, then theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused by execution of the admission component2542 and/or the interpretation component 2547 to convert the flow inputdata set 2330 from its originally received form and into the flow inputdata set 2330 d of distributable form. In so doing, the processor(s)2550 may be caused to refer to the interpretation rules 2537 for rulesconcerning the interpretation of any metadata that may be present withinthe flow input data set 2330 in its original form, and/or for rulesconcerning conversions from the manner in which the data items may beorganized in the original form and into a homogeneous manner oforganization of the data items in the distributable form (e.g., aconversion between differing data structures, such as arrays, linkedlists, comma-separated values, etc.). With the flow input data set 2330so converted into the distributable form 2330 d, the processor(s) 2550may then be caused to cooperate with the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or2600 z to store the flow input data set 2330 d of distributable form ina distributed manner among the storage devices 2600 a-x.

Turning to FIG. 17D, as depicted, the control routine 2540 may includean identifier component 2541 to cause the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 to assign identifiers to objects storedwithin the one or more federated areas 2566. As previously discussed,each instance log 2720 may refer to objects associated with aperformance of a job flow (e.g., a job flow definition 2220, taskroutines 2440, and/or data objects used as inputs and/or generated asoutputs, such as the data sets 2330 and/or 2370, and/or a result report2770) by identifiers assigned to each. Also, as will shortly beexplained, the assigned identifiers may be employed as part of anindexing system in one or more data structures and/or databases to moreefficiently retrieve such objects. In some embodiments, the processor(s)2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may be caused by theidentifier component 2541 to assign identifiers to objects as they areareceived via the network 2999 from other devices, such as the one ormore source devices 2100 and/or the one or more reviewing devices 2800.In other embodiments, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by theidentifier component 2541 to assign identifiers to objects generated asa result of a performance of a job flow (e.g., a mid-flow data set 2370or a result report 2770 generated as an output data object of a taskroutine).

In some embodiments, an object identifier may be generated by taking ahash of at least a portion of its associated object to generate a hashvalue that becomes the identifier. More specifically, a job flowidentifier 2221 may be generated by taking a hash of at least a portionof the corresponding job flow definition 2220; a data object identifier2331 may be generated by taking a hash of at least a portion of thecorresponding data set 2330 or 2370; a task routine identifier 2441 maybe generated by taking a hash of at least a portion of the correspondingtask routine 2440; and/or a result report identifier 2771 may begenerated by taking a hash of at least a portion of the correspondingresult report 2770. Any of a variety of hash algorithms familiar tothose skilled in the art may be employed. Such an approach to generatingidentifiers may be deemed desirable as it may provide a relativelysimple mechanism to generate identifiers that are highly likely to beunique to each object, presuming that a large enough portion of eachobject is used as the basis for each hash taken and/or each of theidentifiers is of a large enough bit width. In some embodiments, thesize of the portions of each of these different objects of which a hashis taken may be identical. Alternatively or additionally, the bit widthsof the resulting hash values that become the identifiers 2221, 2331,2441 and 2771 may be identical.

Such an approach to generating object identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441and/or 2771 may advantageously be easily implemented by devices otherthan the one or more federated devices 2500 to reliably generateidentifiers for objects that are identical to the identifiers generatedby the processor(s) 2550 of any of the one or more federated devices2500. Thus, if a job flow is performed by another device, the instancelog 2720 generated by the other device would use identifiers to refer tothe objects associated with that performance that would be identical tothe identifiers that would have been generated by the processor(s) 2550of the one or more federated devices 2500 to refer to those sameobjects. As a result, such an instance log 2720 could be received by theone or more federated devices 2500 and stored within a federated area2566 without the need to derive new identifiers to replace those alreadyincluded within that instance log 2720 to refer to objects associatedwith a performance of a job flow.

Referring to FIG. 17A in addition to FIG. 17D, in some embodiments, theidentifier component 2541 may cooperate with the admission component2542 in causing the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 to analyze received objects to determine compliance withvarious restrictions as part of determining whether to allow thoseobjects to be stored within the one or more federated areas 2566. Morespecifically, and by way of example, the identifier component 2541 maygenerate object identifiers for each received object. The provision ofobject identifiers for each received object may enable the admissioncomponent 2542 to cause the processor(s) 2550 to check whether theobjects specified in a received instance log 2720 are available amongthe other objects received along with the received instance log 2720, aswell as whether the objects specified in the received instance log 2720are available as already stored within one or more of the federatedareas 2566. If an object referred to in the received instance log 2720is neither among the other objects received therewith or among theobjects already stored within one or more of the federated area 2566,then the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the admission component 2542to disallow storage of the received instance log 2720 within the one ormore federated areas 2566. As previously discussed, disallowing thestorage of an instance log 2720 for such reasons may be deemed desirableto prevent storage of an instance log 2720 that describes a performanceof a job flow that cannot be repeated due to one or more of the objectsassociated with that performance being missing.

Turning to FIG. 17E, in some embodiments, the generation of identifiersfor instance logs 2720 may differ from the generation of identifiers forother objects. More specifically, while the identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441and 2771 may each be derived by taking a hash of at least a portion ofits corresponding object, an instance log identifier 2721 for aninstance log 2720 may be derived from at least a portion of each of theidentifiers for the objects that are associated with the performancethat corresponds to that instance log 2720. Thus, as depicted, theprocessor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may becaused by the identifier component 2541 to generate an instance logidentifier 2721 for a performance of a job flow by concatenating atleast a portion of each of a job flow identifier 2221, one or more dataobject identifiers 2331, one or more task routine identifiers 2441, anda result report identifier 2771 for a job flow definition 2220, one ormore data sets 2330 and/or 2370, one or more task routines 2440, and aresult report 2770, respectively, that are all associated with thatperformance of that job flow. In embodiments in which the bit widths ofeach of the identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441 and 2771 are identical, logidentifiers 2721 may be formed from identically sized portions of eachof such identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441 and 2771, regardless of thequantity of each of the identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441 and 2771 used. Suchuse of identically sized portions of such identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441and 2771 may be deemed desirable to aid in limiting the overall bitwidths of the resulting log identifiers 2721.

FIG. 17F illustrates such a concatenation of identifiers in greaterdetail using identifiers of objects associated with the example job flow2200 fgh and the example performance 2700 afg 2 h earlier discussed inconnection with FIGS. 16A-D. As depicted, after having generated a jobflow identifier 2221 fgh, a data set identifier 2331 a, a task routineidentifier 2441 f, a task routine identifier 2441 g 2, a task routineidentifier 2441 h and a result report identifier 2771 afg 2 h for theexample job flow definition 2220 fgh, the data set 2330 a, the taskroutine 2440 f, the task routine 2440 g 2, the task routine 2440 h andthe result report 2770 afg 2 h, respectively, the processor(s) 2550 maybe caused by the identifier component 2541 to concatenate at least anidentically sized portion of each of these identifiers together to formthe single instance log identifier 2721 afg 2 h for the example instancelog 2720 afg 2 h of FIGS. 16A-D.

Referring back to FIGS. 17D-E, an object location identifier 2222, 2332,2442, 2722 or 2772 may be also be generated along with an objectidentifiers 2221, 2331, 2441, 2721 or 2771, respectively, for at leasteach object that is stored within a federated area 2566. While theobject identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441, 2721 and 2771 may serve to uniquelyidentify each object, the object location identifiers 2222, 2332, 2442,2722 and 2772 may serve to identify where each object is stored in thestorage space(s) provided by the one or more federated devices 2500and/or by the one or more storage devices 2600. In some embodiments,each of the object location identifiers 2222, 2332, 2442, 2722 and 2772may provide just an indication of what federated area 2566 an associatedobject is stored within, and an entirely separate mechanism may beemployed to provide an indication of which one(s) of the one or morefederated device(s) 2500 and/or which one(s) of the one or more storagedevice(s) 2600 provide storage space that is occupied by at least aportion of that federated area 2566.

However, in other embodiments, each of the object location identifiers2222, 2332, 2442, 2722 and 2772 may directly provide both an indicationof what federated area 2566 an associated object is stored within, andan indication of which one(s) of the one or more federated device(s)2500 and/or which one(s) of the one or more storage device(s) 2600provide storage space that is occupied by at least a portion of theassociated object. It should be noted that, as previously discussed,even though a federated area 2566 may occupy storage spaces provided bymultiple devices 2500 and/or 2600, an object may be stored within thatfederated area 2566 in a manner in which it does not occupy all of thosestorage spaces provided by all of those multiple devices 2500 and/or2600. Therefore, the indication provided in each object locationidentifier 2222, 2332, 2442, 2722 or 2772 of which device(s) 2500 and/or2600 store at least a portion of the associated object may be a subsetof the devices 2500 and/or 2600 that provide storage space for thefederated area 2566 in which the associated object is stored.

Additionally, and as will be explained in greater detail, there may bevarious aspects of the manner in which an object may be stored asundivided object within the storage space provided by a single device2500 or 2600, and/or in a distributed manner across storage spacesprovided by multiple devices 2500 and/or 2600, and one or more of theseaspects may affect the manner in which that object is able to besubsequently accessed. By way of example, and as previously discussed,the federated area 2566 in which an object is stored may be defined toexist within a storage space provided by just a single device 2500 or2600, but within either a local file system 2661 or a distributed filesystem 2669, which may affect the manner in which the single device 2500or 2600 is communicated with as part of accessing that object. By way ofanother example, and as also previously discussed, the federated area2566 in which an object is stored may be defined to exist such that itspans across storage spaces provided by multiple devices 2500 and/or2600 within a distributed file system 2669, but with the object beingstored within that federated area 2566 as either an undivided objectthat occupies storage space within just a single one of those devices2500 and/or 2600 or in a distributed manner that occupies storage spacewithin some or all of those storage spaces, which may determine whetherone or more of those devices 2500 and/or 2600 must be communicated withas part of accessing that object.

In some embodiments, to enable such aspects of the storage of an objectto be taken into account, indications of such aspects may be included inits associated object location identifier 2222, 2332, 2442, 2722 or 2772for use in a subsequent retrieval of the object. Therefore, andreferring back to FIGS. 17C-D as an example, the conversion of the flowinput data set 2330 into its distributable form 2330 d and thesubsequent storage of the distributable form 2330 d as the multiple dataobject blocks 2336 d, as depicted in FIG. 17C, may be followed by thestorage, within one of the data object location identifiers 2332depicted in FIG. 17D, of indications of the flow input data set 2330having been stored in a distributed manner as the multiple data objectblocks 2336 d across multiple devices 2500 a-x or 2600 a-x, along withindications of which ones of the multiple devices 2500 a-x or 2600 a-xthe multiple data object blocks 2336 d are stored within.

FIGS. 18A, 18B, 18C, 18D, 18E and 18F, together, illustrate aspects oforganizing objects within federated areas to better enable the retrievalof objects for use. FIG. 18A depicts aspects of organizing objects intodatabases within federated areas 2566. FIG. 18B depicts aspects of asingle global index that covers all federated areas 2566 within theexample hierarchical tree earlier introduced in FIGS. 15B-C, and FIG.18C depicts aspects of multiple side-by-side indexes for each privatefederated area 2566 within the same example hierarchical tree. FIG. 18Dillustrates aspects of selective retrieval of objects from one or morefederated areas 2566 in response to requests received from one or moreof the reviewing devices 2800, and FIG. 18E illustrates aspects of theuse of identifiers assigned to objects to locate objects within one ormore federated areas 2566 and/or to identify object associations. FIG.18F illustrates aspects of the retrieval of a job flow definition 2220or a DAG 2270 in which a translation is performed between programminglanguages. FIG. 18G illustrates aspects of the retrieval of a dataobject that has been stored in a distributed manner.

Turning to FIG. 18A, as depicted, the control routine 2540 may include adatabase component 2545 to cause the processor(s) 2550 of the one ormore federated devices 2500 to organize various ones of the objects2220, 2270, 2330, 2370, 2440, 2470, 2720 and 2770 into one or moredatabases 2562, 2563, 2564 and/or 2567 (or one or more of another typeof data structure) for more efficient storage and retrieval thereofwithin the one or more federated areas 2566. In some embodiments inwhich there are multiple unrelated federated areas 2566, theprocessor(s) 2566 may be caused to instantiate a separate instance ofeach of the databases 2562, 2563, 2564 and/or 2567 within each of thoseunrelated federated areas 2566. In other embodiments in which there aremultiple federated areas 2566 that are related to each other as by beingincluded in either a single linear hierarchy (e.g., the example linearhierarchy introduced in FIG. 15A) or a single hierarchical tree (e.g.,the example hierarchical tree introduced in FIGS. 15B-C), theprocessor(s) 2566 may be caused to instantiate a single instance of eachof the databases 2562, 2563, 2564 and/or 2567 that may cover (or beotherwise capable of covering) all of those multiple related federatedareas 2566. However, in still other embodiments in which there aremultiple federated areas 2566 that are related to each other as by beingincluded in a single hierarchical tree, the processor(s) 2566 may becaused to instantiate multiple instances of each of the databases 2562,2563, 2564 and/or 2567, where each of those multiple instances covers adifferent subset of those multiple related federated areas 2566 thatexists within a different one of the branches of the hierarchical tree.Still other embodiments are possible in which each instance of each ofthe databases 2562, 2563, 2564 and/or 2567 may cover one or multiplerelated and/or unrelated federated areas 2566.

Within each instance of the job flow database 2562, the job flowdefinitions 2220 may be indexed or made otherwise addressable by theircorresponding job flow identifiers 2221. In some embodiments, DAGs 2270may be stored within each instance of the job flow database(s) 2562alongside the job flow definitions 2220. As has been discussed, new jobflow definitions 2220 may be at least partially based on DAGs 2270.

Within each instance of the data object database 2563, the data sets2330 and/or 2370 may be accessible via their corresponding data objectidentifiers 2331, and/or each of the result reports 2770 may beaccessible via their corresponding result report identifiers 2771.

Within each instance of the task routine database 2564, the taskroutines 2440 may be indexed or made otherwise addressable both by theircorresponding task routine identifiers 2441, and by the flow taskidentifiers 2241 that each may also be assigned to indicate theparticular task that each is able to perform. As has been discussed,there may be tasks that multiple task routines 2440 are able to performsuch that there may be sets of multiple task routines 2440 that allshare the same flow task identifier 2241. In some embodiments, a searchof an instance of the task routine database 2564 using a flow taskidentifier 2241 to find a task routine 2440 that is able to perform thecorresponding task may beget an indication from that instance of thetask routine database 2564 of there being more than one of such taskroutines 2440, such as a list of the task routine identifiers 2441 ofsuch task routines 2440. Such an indication may also include anindication of which of the multiple task routines 2440 so identified isthe most recent version thereof. Such an indication may be provided byan ordering of the task routine identifiers 2441 of the multiple taskroutines 2440 that places the task routine identifier 2441 of the mostrecent version of the task routines 2440 at a particular position withinthe list. In this way, indications of whether one or multiple taskroutines 2440 exists that are able to perform a task, as well as whichone of multiple task routines 2440 is the newest version, may be quicklyprovided from an instance of the task routine database 2564 in a mannerthat obviates the need to access and/or analyze any of the task routines2440 therefrom.

In some embodiments, macros 2470 may be stored within each instance ofthe task routine database(s) 2564 alongside the task routines 2440 fromwhich each macro 2470 may be derived. As will be explained in greaterdetail, it may be deemed desirable to enable each macro 2470 to besearchable based on either the task routine identifier 2441 of thespecific task routine 2440 from which it was generated, or the flow taskidentifier 2241 of the task that the task routine 2440 performs.

Within each instance of the instance log database 2567, the instancelogs 2720 may be indexed or made otherwise addressable by theircorresponding instance log identifiers 2721. As has been discussed, eachperformance of a job flow may cause the generation of a separatecorresponding instance log 2720 during that performance that provides alog of events occurring during the performance, including and notlimited to, each performance of a task. In such embodiments, eachinstance log 2720 may be implemented as a separate data structure and/orfile to provide indications of events occurring during the performanceto which it corresponds. However, other embodiments are possible inwhich each of the instance logs 2720 is implemented as an entry of alarger log data structure and/or larger log data file, such as aninstance of the instance log database 2567. In some embodiments, themanner in which the instance log identifiers 2721 of the instance logs2720 are stored within an instance of the instance log database 2567 (orother data structure) may be structured to allow each of the instancelog identifiers 2721 to be searched for at least portions of particularidentifiers for other objects that were concatenated to form one or moreof the instance log identifiers 2721. As will shortly be explained ingreater detail, enabling such searches to be performed of the instancelog identifiers 2721 may advantageously allow an instance log 2720 for aparticular performance of a particular job flow to be identified in amanner that obviates the need to access and/or analyze any of theinstance logs 2720 within an instance log database 2567.

As previously discussed, each of the object identifiers 2221, 2331,2441, 2721 and/or 2771 may be accompanied by a corresponding objectlocation identifier 2222, 2332, 2442, 2722 and/or 2772, respectively,that serves to indicate at least which federated area 2566 of themultiple related federated areas 2566 that the corresponding object maybe stored within. Thus, and more precisely, each job flow identifier2221 may be accompanied by a job flow location identifier 2222 thatserves to identify which of multiple related federated areas 2566 thecorresponding job flow definition 2220 or DAG 2270 is stored within.Similarly, each data object identifier 2331 may be accompanied by a dataobject location identifier 2332 that serves to identify which ofmultiple related federated areas 2566 the corresponding data set 2330 or2370 is stored within. Similarly, each result report identifier 2771 maybe accompanied by a result report location identifier 2772 that servesto identify which of multiple related federated areas 2566 thecorresponding result report 2770 is stored within. Similarly, each taskroutine identifier 2441 may be accompanied by a task routine locationidentifier 2442 that serves to identify which of multiple relatedfederated areas 2566 the corresponding task routine 2440 or macro 2470is stored within. Similarly, each instance log identifier 2721 may beaccompanied by an instance log location identifier 2722 that serves toidentify which of multiple related federated areas 2566 thecorresponding instance log 2720 is stored within.

FIG. 18B depicts the resulting hierarchy-wide coverage of the resultingsingle set of object identifiers 2221, 2331, 2441, 2771 and/or 2721, andobject location identifiers 2222, 2332, 2442, 2772 and/or 2722,respectively, in embodiments in which a single instance of each of thedatabases 2562, 2563, 2564 and/or 2567 covers all of the multiplefederated areas 2566 within a single set of related federated areaswithin a single hierarchical structure, such as the depicted examplehierarchical tree introduced in FIGS. 15B-C. Thus, the single depictedset of object identifiers and object location identifiers may be used inretrieving any of the corresponding types of objects that may be storedwithin any of the federated areas 2566 m, 2566 q, 2566 r, 2566 u and2566 x of the depicted example hierarchical tree.

In contrast, FIG. 18C depicts the resulting per-branch coverage of theresulting multiple sets of object identifiers 2221 m, 2331 m, 2441 m,2771 m and/or 2721 m; 2221 q, 2331 q, 2441 q, 2771 q and/or 2721 q;and/or 2221 r, 2331 r, 2441 r, 2771 r and/or 2721 r; and object locationidentifiers 2222 m, 2332 m, 2442 m, 2772 m and/or 2722 m; 2222 q, 2332q, 2442 q, 2772 q and/or 2722 q; and/or 2222 r, 2332 r, 2442 r, 2772 rand/or 2722 r; respectively, in embodiments in which a separate instanceof each of the databases 2562, 2563, 2564 and/or 2567 covers a differentsubset of the multiple federated areas 2566 within a different branch ofa single set of related federated areas within a single hierarchicaltree. Thus, one of the depicted sets of object identifiers and objectlocation identifiers may be used in retrieving any of the correspondingtypes of objects that may be stored within either of the federated areas2566 m or 2566 x; while another of the depicted sets of objectidentifiers and object location identifiers may be used in retrievingany of the corresponding types of objects that may be stored within anyof the federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u or 2566 x; and still another ofthe depicted sets of object identifiers and object location identifiersmay be used in retrieving any of the corresponding types of objects thatmay be stored within any of the federated areas 2566 r, 2566 u or 2566x.

Turning to FIG. 18D, and as previously discussed, the one or morefederated devices 2500 may receive a request from one of the sourcedevices 2100, or from one of the reviewing devices 2800, to retrieve oneor more objects associated with a job flow from within the one or morefederated areas 2566 and provide it to the requesting device 2100 or2800. Alternatively, the request may be to use one or more objectsassociated with a job flow, and retrieved from the one or more federatedareas 2566, to perform an analysis and provide the results thereof. Or,as an another alterative, the request may be to use one or more objectsassociated with a job flow, and retrieved from the one or more federatedareas 2566, to repeat a past performance of that job flow and providethe results thereof and/or the results of a comparison of past and newresults thereof. In some embodiments, the processor(s) 2550 of the oneor more federated devices 2500 may be caused by the portal component2549 to queue such requests as request data 2535 to enable out-of-orderhandling of requests, and/or other approaches to increase the efficiencywith which such requests are responded to. As previously discussed, theprocessor(s) 2550 may also be caused by the portal component todetermine whether each of the received requests originated from anauthorized person, an authorized device and/or an authorized entity,and/or to determine whether the type of request is authorized fororiginating person, device and/or entity.

As depicted, the control routine 2540 may also include a selectioncomponent 2543 to employ one or more identifiers provided in a requestand/or one or more rules to locate, select and retrieve objectsassociated with a job flow from the one or more federated areas 2566. Inexecuting the selection component 2543 and the database component 2545to provide requested objects, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused to useone or more identifiers of objects that may be provided in a grantedrequest to directly retrieve those one or more objects from one or morefederated areas 2566. By way of example, a request may be received forthe retrieval and transmission to the requesting device 2100 or 2800 ofa particular flow input data set 2330, and the request may include thedata object identifier 2331 of the particular flow input data set 2330.In response to the request, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by thedatabase component 2545 to employ the provided data object identifier2331 and/or the corresponding data object location identifier 2332 tosearch for the particular flow input data set 2330 within the one ormore federated areas 2566, retrieve it, and transmit it to therequesting device 2800. In so doing, the processor(s) 2550 may be causedto correlate the received data object identifier 2331 to thecorresponding data object location identifier 2332, and to then retrievethe particular flow input data set 2330 from the federated area 2566indicated by that data object location identifier 2332. Further, in sodoing, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused to communicate within one ormore storage devices 2600 and/or one or more other federated devices2500 that may be indicated by the data object location identifier asstoring at least a portion of the flow input data set 2330.

However, other requests may be for the retrieval of objects from one ormore federated areas 2566 where the identifiers of the requested objectsmay not be directly provided within the requests. Instead, such requestsmay employ other identifiers that provide an indirect reference to therequested objects.

In one example use of an indirect reference to objects, a request may bereceived for the retrieval and transmission to the requesting device2100 or 2800 of a task routine 2440 that performs a particular task, andthe request may include the flow task identifier 2241 of the particulartask instead of a task routine identifier 2441 that directly identifiesany particular task routine 2440. The processor(s) 2550 may be caused bythe selection component 2543 and database component 2545 to employ theflow task identifier 2241 provided in the request to search within oneor more federated areas 2566 for such task routines 2440. As has beenpreviously discussed, the search may entail correlating the flow taskidentifiers 2241 to one or more task routine identifiers 2441 of thecorresponding one or more task routines 2440 that may perform the taskidentified by the flow task identifier 2241. In embodiments in which thetask routines 2440 have been organized into a task routine database 2564within each federated area 2566 as depicted as an example in FIG. 18A(or other searchable data structure), the search may entail searcheswithin such a database or other data structure. The result of such asearch may be an indication from such a database or other data structurewithin the one or more federated areas 2566 that there is more than onetask routine 2440 that is able to perform the task identified by theflow task identifier 2241 provided in the request. As previouslydiscussed, such an indication may be in the form of a list of the taskroutine identifiers 2441 for the task routines 2440 that are able toperform the specified task. Additionally, and as also previouslydiscussed, such a list may be ordered to provide an indication of whichof those task routines 2440 stored within a federated area 2566 is thenewest. Again, it may be deemed desirable to favor the use of the newestversion of a task routine 2440 that performs a particular task wherethere is more than one task routine 2440 stored within one or morefederated areas 2566 that is able to do so. Therefore, in response tothe request, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused to select the newesttask routine 2440 indicated among all of the one or more of such listsretrieved within each of one or more federated areas 2566 to perform thetask specified in the request by the flow task identifier 2241, and totransmit that newest version to the requesting device. Through suchautomatic selection and retrieval of the newest versions of taskroutines 2440, individuals and/or entities that may be developing newanalyses may be encouraged to use the newest versions.

In another example use of an indirect reference to objects, a requestmay be received by the one or more federated devices 2500 to repeat aprevious performance of a specified job flow with one or more specifieddata objects as inputs (e.g., one or more of the data sets 2330), or toprovide the requesting device with the objects needed to repeat theprevious performance of the job flow, itself. Thus, the request mayinclude the job flow identifier 2221 of the job flow definition 2220 forthe job flow, and may include one or more data object identifiers 2331of the one or more data sets 2330 to be employed as inputs to theprevious performance of that job flow sought to be repeated, but may notinclude identifiers for any other object associated with that previousperformance.

The processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the selection component 2543 toemploy the job flow identifier 2221 and the one or more data objectsidentifiers 2331 provided in the request to search the one or morefederated areas 2566 for all instance logs 2720 that provide anindication of a past performance of the specified job flow with thespecified one or more input data objects. In embodiments in which theinstance logs 2720 have been organized into an instance log database2567 as depicted as an example in FIG. 18A (or other searchable datastructure), the search may be within such a database or other datastructure, and may be limited to the instance log identifiers 2721. Morespecifically, in embodiments in which the instance log identifiers 2721were each generated by concatenating the identifiers of objectsassociated with a corresponding past performance, the instance logidentifiers 2721, themselves, may be analyzed to determine whether theidentifiers provided in the request for particular objects are includedwithin any of the instance log identifiers 2721. Thus, the processor(s)2550 may be caused to search each instance log identifier 2721 todetermine whether there are any instance log identifiers 2721 thatinclude the job flow identifier 2221 and all of the data objectidentifiers 2331 provided in the request. If such an instance logidentifier 2721 is found, then it is an indication that the instance log2720 that was assigned that instance log identifier 2721 is associatedwith a past performance of that job flow associated with the one or moredata sets 2330 specified in the request.

It should be noted, however, that a situation may arise in which morethan one of such instance log identifiers 2721 may be found, indicatingthat there has been more than one past performance of the job flow withthe one or more data sets specified in the request. In response to sucha situation, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the selectioncomponent 2543 to transmit an indication of the multiple previousperformances to the requesting device 2100 or 2800 along with a requestfor a selection to be made from among those previous performances. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may then await a response from the requesting device2100 or 2800 that provides an indication of a selection from among themultiple past performances. As an alternative to such an exchange withthe requesting device 2100 or 2800, or in response to a predeterminedperiod of time having elapsed since requesting a selection without anindication of a selection having been received by the one or morefederated devices 2500, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by theselection component 2543 to, as a default, select the most recent one ofthe past performances.

After identifying a single past performance, or after the selection ofone of multiple past performances, the processor(s) 2550 may then becaused by the selection component 2543 to retrieve the task routineidentifiers 2441 specified within the corresponding instance log 2720 ofthe particular task routines 2440 used in the previous performance. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may then be caused by the database component 2545 toemploy those task routine identifiers 2441 to retrieve the particulartask routines 2440 associated with the previous performance from one ormore federated areas 2566. The processor(s) 2550 may also be caused bythe selection component 2543 to retrieve the result report identifier2771 specified within the instance log 2720 of the result report thatwas generated in the previous performance. The processor(s) 2550 may befurther caused by the selection component 2543 to retrieve any dataobject identifiers 2331 that may be present within the instance log 2720that specify one or more data sets 2370 that may have been generated asa mechanism to exchange data between task routines 2440 during theperformance of a job flow.

If the request was for the provision of objects to the requestingdevice, then the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the databasecomponent 2543 to retrieve, from the one or more federated areas, thejob flow definition 2220 and the one or more data sets 2330 specified bythe job flow identifier 2221 and the one or more data object identifiers2331, respectively, in the request, and may be further caused by theportal component 2549 to transmit those objects to the requesting device2100 or 2800. The processor 2550 may also be caused by the portalcomponent 2549 to transmit the instance log 2720 generated in the pastperformance, and the result report 2770 specified by the result reportidentifier 2771 retrieved from the instance log 2720. If any data sets2370 were indicated in the instance log 2720 as having been generated inthe previous performance, then the processor(s) 2550 may be furthercaused by the portal component 2549 to transmit such data set(s) 2370 tothe requesting device 2100 or 2800 after having been caused to retrievesuch data set(s) 2370 from the one or more federated areas 2566 by thedatabase component 2545. Thus, based on a request that provided onlyidentifiers for a job flow definition 2220 and one or more data objectsused as inputs to a past performance of the job flow, a full set ofobjects may be automatically selected and transmitted to the requestingdevice to enable an independent performance of the job flow as part of areview of that previous performance.

However, if the request was for a repeat of the previous performance ofthe job flow by the one or more federated devices 2500, then instead of(or in addition to) transmitting the objects needed to repeat theprevious performance to the requesting device 2100 or 2800, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused by execution of a performance component2544 of the control routine 2540 to use those objects to repeat theprevious performance within a federated area 2566 in which at least oneof the objects is stored and/or to which the user associated with therequest and/or the requesting device 2100 or 2800 has been grantedaccess. In some embodiments, the federated area 2566 in which theprevious performance took place may be selected, by default, to be thefederated area 2566 in which to repeat the performance Indeed, repeatingthe performance within the same federated area 2566 may be deemed arequirement to truly reproduce the conditions under which the previousperformance occurred. More specifically, the processor(s) 2550 may becaused to execute the task routines 2440 specified in the instance log2720, in the order specified in the job flow definition 2220 specifiedin the request, and using the one or more data sets 2330 specified inthe request as input data objects. In some embodiments, where multipleones of the federated devices 2500 are operated together as thefederated device grid 2005, the processor(s) 2550 of the multiple onesof the federated devices 2500 may be caused by the performance component2544 to cooperate to divide the execution of one or more of the tasksthereamong. Such a division of one or more of the tasks may be deemeddesirable where one or more of the data objects associated with the jobflow is of relatively large size. Regardless of the quantity of thefederated devices 2500 involved in repeating the previous performance ofthe job flow, upon completion of the repeat performance, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be further caused by the performance component2544 to transmit the newly regenerated result report 2770 to therequesting device. Alternatively or additionally, the processor(s) 2550may perform a comparison between the newly regenerated result report2770 and the result report 2770 previously generated in the previousperformance to determine if there are any differences, and may transmitan indication of the results of that comparison to the requestingdevice. Thus, based on a request that provided only identifiers for ajob flow definition 2220 and one or more data objects used as inputs tothe job flow, a previous performance of a job flow may be repeated andthe results thereof transmitted to the requesting device as part of areview of the previous performance.

In still another example use of an indirect reference to objects, arequest may be received by the one or more federated devices 2500 toperform a specified job flow with one or more specified data objects asinputs (e.g., one or more of the data sets 2330). Thus, the request mayinclude the job flow identifier 2221 of the job flow definition 2220 forthe job flow, and may include one or more data object identifiers 2331of the one or more data sets 2330 to be employed as input data objects,but may not include any identifiers for any other objects needed for theperformance.

The processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the selection component 2543 toemploy the job flow identifier 2221 provided in the request to retrievethe job flow definition 2220 for the job flow to be performed. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may then be caused to retrieve the flow taskidentifiers 2241 from the job flow definition 2220 that specify thetasks to be performed, and may employ the flow task identifiers 2241 toretrieve the newest version of task routine 2440 within one or morefederated areas 2566 (e.g., within the task routine database 2564 withineach of one or more federated areas 2566) for each task. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may also be caused by the selection component 2543 toemploy the job flow identifier 2221 and the one or more data objectsidentifiers 2331 to search the one or more federated areas 2566 for anyinstance logs 2720 that provide an indication of a past performance ofthe specified job flow with the specified one or more input dataobjects.

If no such instance log identifier 2721 is found, then it is anindication that there is no record within the one or more federatedareas of any previous performance of the specified job flow with the oneor more specified data sets 2330. In response, the processor(s) 2550 maybe caused by execution of the performance component 2544 to execute theretrieved newest version of each of the task routines 2440 to performthe tasks of the job flow in the order specified in the job flowdefinition 2220 specified in the request, and using the one or more datasets 2330 specified in the request as input data objects. Again, inembodiments in which multiple ones of the federated devices 2500 areoperated together as the federated device grid 2005, the processor(s)2550 may be caused by the performance component 2544 to cooperate todivide the execution of one or more of the tasks thereamong. Uponcompletion of the performance of the job flow, the processor(s) 2550 maybe further caused by the performance component 2544 to transmit theresult report 2770 generated in the performance of the job flow to therequesting device. Thus, based on a request that provided onlyidentifiers for a job flow definition 2220 and one or more data objectsused as inputs to the job flow, a performance of a job flow is caused tooccur using the newest available versions of task routines 2440 toperform each task.

However, if such an instance log identifier 2721 is found, then it is anindication that there was a previous performance of the job flowspecified in the request where the one or more data sets 2330 specifiedin the request were used as input data objects. If a situation shouldoccur where multiple ones of such instance log identifiers 2721 arefound, then it is an indication that there have been multiple previousperformances of the job flow, and the processor(s) 2550 may be caused bythe selection component 2543 to select the most recent one of themultiple previous performances, by default. After the finding of asingle previous performance, or after the selection of the most recentone of multiple previous performances, the processor(s) 2550 may then becaused by the selection component 2543 to retrieve the task routineidentifiers 2441 specified within the corresponding instance log 2720 ofthe particular task routines 2440 used in the previous performance. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may then employ those task routine identifiers 2441 toretrieve the particular task routines 2440 associated with the previousperformance from one or more federated areas 2566. The processor 2550may then compare each of the task routines 2440 specified in theinstance log 2720 to the newest task routines 2440 retrieved for eachtask specified in the job flow definition 2220 to determine whether allof the task routines 2440 specified in the instance log 2720 are thenewest versions thereof. If so, then the result report 2770 generated inthe previous performance associated with the instance log 2720 wasgenerated using the most recent versions of each of the task routines2440 needed to perform the tasks of the job flow. The processor(s) 2550may then entirely forego performing the job flow, may employ the resultreport identifier 2771 provided in the instance log 2720 to retrieve theresult report 2770 generated in the earlier performance, and maytransmit that result report 2770 to the requesting device. In this way,a form of caching is provided by which the previously generated resultreport 2770 is able to be recognized as reusable, and the use ofprocessing resources of the one or more federated devices 2500 to repeata previous performance of the job flow is avoided.

It should be noted, however, that a situation may arise in which one ormore of the task routines 2440 specified in the instance log 2720 arethe newest versions thereof, while one or more others of the taskroutines 2440 specified in the instance log 2720 are not. In response tosuch a situation, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the selectionroutine 2543 to check whether at least the task routine 2440 specifiedin the instance log 2720 as performing the first task in the order oftasks specified in the job flow definition 2220 is the newest version oftask routine 2440 able to perform that task. If not, then theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused by the performance component 2544 toemploy all of the newest versions of the task routines 2440 to performthe entire job flow, just as the processor(s) 2550 would be caused to doso if there had been no previous performance of the job flow, at all.However, if the first task in the previous performance of the job flowwas performed with the newest version of task routine 2440 able toperform that first task, then the processor(s) 2550 may iterate througheach task in the order of tasks specified in job flow definition 2720 todetermine which were performed with the newest version of task routine2440. The processor(s) 2550 would start with the first task in thespecified order of tasks, and stop wherever in the specified order oftasks the processor(s) 2550 determine that a task routine 2440 was usedthat is not the newest version thereof. In this way, the processor(s)2550 may identify an initial portion of the order of tasks specified inthe job flow definition 2220 that may not need to be performed again asthey were already performed using the newest versions of theirrespective task routines 2440. As a result, only the remainder of thetasks that follow the initial portion in the order of tasks may need tobe performed again, but using the newest versions of their respectivetask routines 2440 for all of those remaining tasks. In this way, a formof partial caching is provided by which an initial portion of a previousperformance of a job flow is able to be reused such that not all of thejob flow needs to be performed again to generate a result report 2770 tobe transmitted to the requesting device.

FIG. 18E illustrates two examples of searching for objects using one ormore identifiers that provide an indirect reference to those objects ingreater detail. More specifically, FIG. 18E depicts two differentsearches for objects that each employ the example instance logidentifier 2721 afg 2 h associated with the 2720 afg 2 h instance log ofthe example performance of the job flow 2200 fgh of FIGS. 16A-D.

In one example search, and referring to both FIGS. 18D and 18E, arequest may be received (and stored as part of the request data 2535)for the retrieval of objects associated with, and/or for a repetitionof, the example performance 2700 afg 2 h that resulted in the generationof the result report 2770 afg 2 h. In so doing, the request may use theresult report identifier 2771 afg 2 h to refer to the result report 2770afg 2 h, while providing no other identifier for any other objectassociated with the performance 2700 afg 2 h. In response, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused by the selection component 2543 tocooperate with the database component 2545 to search the instance logidentifiers 2721 of the instance log database 2567 within one or morefederated areas 2566 to locate the one of the multiple instance logidentifiers 2721 that includes the result report identifier 2771 afg 2h. As depicted, the instance log identifier 2721 afg 2 h is the one ofthe multiple instance log identifiers 2721 that contains the resultreport identifier 2771 afg 2 h. With the instance log identifier 2721afg 2 h having been found, the processor(s) 2550 may then be caused bythe selection component 2543 to retrieve, from the instance log 2720 afg2 h, the identifiers of the various objects requested to be transmittedto the requesting device and/or needed to repeat the example performance2700 afg 2 h.

In another example search, a request may be received for a repetition ofa previous performance of a specific job flow with a specific dataobject used as input. In so doing, the request may refer to the examplejob flow 2200 fgh of FIGS. 16A-D by using the job flow identifier 2221fgh of the job flow definition 2220 fgh that defines the example jobflow 2200 fgh, and may refer to the data set 2330 a by using the dataobject identifier 2331 a. In response, the processor(s) 2550 may becaused by the selection component 2543 to cooperate with the databasecomponent 2545 to search the instance log identifiers 2721 of theinstance log database 2567 within one or more federated areas 2566 tolocate any of the multiple instance log identifiers 2721 that includesthe both the job flow identifier 2221 fgh and the data object identifier2331 a. As depicted, the instance log identifier 2721 afg 2 h is the oneof the multiple instance log identifiers 2721 that contains both ofthese identifiers 2221 fgh and 2331 a. With the instance log identifier2721 afg 2 h having been found, the processor(s) 2550 may then be causedby the selection component 2543 to retrieve, from the instance log 2720afg 2 h, the identifiers of the various objects needed to repeat theexample performance 2700 afg 2 h. The processor(s) 2550 may then becaused by execution of the performance component 2544 to perform theexample job flow 2200 fgh with the data set 2330 a as the input dataobject.

Turning to FIG. 18F, while also referring back to FIG. 18D, as analternative to the one or more federated devices 2500 transmittingobjects to another device 2100 or 2800 in response to requests, and aspreviously discussed, the one or more federated devices 2500 may,instead, transmit objects to another device 2100 or 2800 as a result ofan ongoing synchronization relationship instantiated between transferarea(s) 2666 within one or more federated areas 2566 and other transferarea(s) 2166 or 2866 within a storage 2160 or 2860 of the other device2100 or 2800, respectively. Again, the instantiation of suchsynchronization relationship(s) may be in response to a request receivedby the one or more federated devices 2500. And again, in someembodiments, such synchronization relationship(s) may be requested andinstantiated to support a collaboration among developers who have accessto and are familiar with the use of the one or more federated areas 2566of the one or more federated devices 2500, and other developers who donot have access to and/or are not familiar with the use of those one ormore federated areas 2566.

As previously discussed, such synchronized relationship(s) in whichthere is a need for translations between programming languages may beinstantiated in support of a collaboration among developers to developan analysis or other routine that includes developers familiar with aprimary programming language associated with the use of the one or morefederated areas 2566, and other developers who may, instead, be familiarwith a secondary programming language. Again, such other developers mayalso be accustomed to relying upon an implementation of a source codemanagement system within the other device 2100 or 2800, instead of beingfamiliar with the use of the one or more federated areas 2566.

Again, in such a situation, such synchronization relationship(s) mayentail maintaining synchronization of contents between transfer area(s)2666 instantiated within federated areas(s) 2566 maintained by the oneor more federated devices 2500 and a transfer area(s) 2166 or 2866maintained within the storage 2160 or 2860 of the other device 2100 or2800, respectively. Again, the transfer area(s) 2166 or 2866 may bedefined to occupy the portion of the storage 2160 or 2860 of the device2100 or 2800 within which a source code management system maintains acopy of all of the executable instructions. Correspondingly, thetransfer area(s) 2666 instantiated within a federated area(s) 2566 mayalso be the designated location(s) in which portions of the executableinstructions of the analysis or other routine are to be stored asobjects. With these transfer areas and their synchronizationrelationship having been instantiated, it may be that the processor(s)2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 are caused to cooperatewith the processor(s) 2150 of the device 2100 in which the transferarea(s) 2166 is instantiated, or the processor(s) of the device 2800 inwhich the transfer area(s) 2866 is instantiated, to use instances inwhich changes to portions of executable instructions have been“committed” or at least “checked in” as a trigger to cause the transferof the affected object(s) therebetween.

Continuing with FIG. 18F, regardless of the exact manner in which theone or more federated devices 2500 are caused to transmit an object toanother device 2100 or 2800, it may be that the other device 2100 or2800 requires a portion of the transmitted object to be written in asecondary programming language that is not utilized by the processor(s)2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 in the performance of jobflows. In some embodiments, it may be that this requirement is to beapplied to job flow definitions 2220 that are to be transmitted by theone or more federated devices 2500 back to the other device 2100 or2800, as it may be that at least some other types of object may not betransmitted back to the other device 2100 or 2800. Thus, in suchembodiments, the depicted job flow definition 2220 p, which includesinput and/or output interface definitions written in the primaryprogramming language, is to be translated into the depicted other form2220 s, which includes corresponding input and/or output interfacedefinitions written in the secondary programming language.

In some of such embodiments, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may be caused to perform a reverse form of thetranslation process earlier described in connection with FIG. 17B bywhich the job flow definition 2220 p stored within a federated area mayhave been generated from an earlier received version thereof in whichthe input and/or output interface definitions were written in asecondary language. More specifically, the processor(s) 2550 may becaused to translate the input and/or output interface definitions withinthe depicted job flow definition 2220 p into an intermediaterepresentation, just as might normally be done to enable a comparison toinput and/or output interface implementations by one or more taskroutines 2440. Subsequently, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused totranslate the input and/or output definitions from the intermediaterepresentation and into the secondary programming language within thedepicted job flow definition 2220 s that is transmitted to the otherdevice 2100 or 2800.

Alternatively, in other embodiments in which the transmission of objectsback to the other device 2100 or 2800 is limited to job flow definitions2220, and at least the input and/or output interface definitions thereofare required to be written in the secondary programming language, theprocessor(s) 2550 may be caused by the interpretation component 2547 toperform a direct translation from the at least the input and/or outputdefinitions written in the primary programming language within thedepicted job flow definition 2220 p, and into at least the input and/oroutput definitions written in the secondary programming language withinthe depicted job flow definition 2220 s that is transmitted to the otherdevice 2100 or 2800. Such a direct translation may be deemed desirablewhere a fuller translation capability is needed as a result of thedepicted job flow definition 2220 p also including GUI instructions thatneed to be translated from the primary programming language into thesecondary programming language to generate corresponding GUIinstructions within the depicted job flow definition 2220 s.

As previously discussed, job flow definitions 2220 may be derived fromDAGs 2270 and/or vice versa. As also previously discussed, embodimentsare possible in which different DAGs 2270 may be generated in differentlanguages, and such different languages may be the same differingprogramming languages as used in portions of job flow definitions 2220.Alternatively, such different languages may be differing forms ofnotation, and each may be associated with a different programminglanguage and/or a different development environment. Thus, like job flowdefinitions 2220, it may be that DAGs 2270 exchanged between the one ormore federated devices 2500 and another device 2100 or 2800 may also beat least partially translated such that, as depicted, for a DAG 2270 pstored within a transfer area 2666 within a federated area 2566 thatemploys a primary programming language or primary form of notation,there may be a corresponding DAG 2270 s that is generated therefrom andstored within a transfer area 2166 or 2866 within a storage 2160 or2860, respectively, that employs a secondary programming language orsecondary form of notation to provide the same view of the same job flow2200, of the same instance of performance of a job flow 2200, of thesame task and/or of the same task routine 2440.

Turning to FIG. 18G, also regardless of the exact manner in which theone or more federated devices 2500 are caused to transmit an object toanother device 2100 or 2800, it may be that the other device 2100 or2800 requires being provided with a large data object that had beenpreviously stored in a distributed manner among multiple storage devices2600 a-x and/or 2600 z, such as the depicted flow input data set 2330.As a result, a whole version of the flow input data set 2330 may need tobe reassembled (e.g., in a reduction operation) from the multiple blocksinto which it had been previously divided for storage, such as thedepicted multiple data object blocks 2336 d distributed across thestorage devices 2600 a-x, or across the federated devices 2600 a-x,described in connection with FIG. 17C. However, as previously discussed,in some embodiments, it may be that such distributed storage of the flowinput data set 2330 had entailed a conversion into a distributable form,such as the conversion that was also earlier described in connectionwith FIG. 17C. Thus, in such embodiments, reassembly of the flow inputdata set 2330 from the multiple data object blocks 2336 d may entail areversal of the earlier performed conversion into distributable form.

Therefore, in response to the requirement to provide the flow input dataset 2330 to another device 2100 or 2800, and based on whether the flowinput data set 2330 had been converted into a distributable form as partof storing it, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may be caused by execution of the selection component 2543and/or the database component 2544 to cooperate with the storage devices2600 a-x and/or 2600 z, or with the federated devices 2500 a-x and/or2500 z, to retrieve the flow input data set 2330 d of distributable formthe multiple data object blocks 2336 d distributed thereamong. Aspreviously discussed in reference to FIG. 17D, it may be that a dataobject location identifier 2332 is accessed to retrieve indications ofaspects of the manner in which the flow input data set 2330 was stored,including and not limited to, indications of having been so converted,of having been stored in a distributed manner, of what federated area2566 in which it is stored and/or of which devices 2600 a-x and/or 2500a-x in which it is stored in a distributed manner Again, suchindications may affect the choice of which devices are communicated withto retrieve the flow input data set 2330.

In some embodiments in which the flow input data set 2330 is storedacross the storage devices 2600 a-x, it may be the storage devices 2600a-x and/or 2600 z that perform the work of reassembling the flow inputdata set 2330 d from the data object blocks 2336 d as the flow inputdata set 2330 d. Alternatively, it may be the processor(s) 2550 of theone or more storage devices 2500 that are to transmit the retrieved flowinput data set 2330 to the other device 2100 or 2800 that may be causedto perform such a reassembly.

With the flow input data set 2330 d reassembled, the processor(s) 2550may then perform a reverse conversion of the flow input data set 2330 dof distributable form into the originally received form of the flowinput data set 2330. In so doing, the processor(s) 2550 may re-create adistinct metadata data structure within the re-created flow input dataset 2330 (if such a metadata data structure was present therein,originally), and/or may organized the data items therein into multipledistinct and/or non-homogeneous data structures within the re-createdflow input data set 2330 (if such multiple data structures were presenttherein, originally). Regardless of the exact actions required tore-create the flow input data set 2330 in its originally received form,following such a re-creation, the processor(s) 2550 may then be causedto transmit the newly re-created original form of the flow input dataset 2330 to the other device 2100 or 2800 via the network 2999.

FIGS. 19A, 19B, 19C, 19D and 19E, together, illustrate various aspectsof the generation of a DAG 2270 based on one or more task routines 2440,and of the use of such a DAG 2270 to provide a visualization 2980 ofsuch one or more task routines 2440. FIG. 19A illustrates aspects ofcollecting information concerning inputs and/or outputs of at least onetask routine 2440 in preparation for generating a DAG 2270. FIG. 19Billustrates aspects of generating a DAG 2270 based on collectedinformation concerning inputs and/or outputs of at least one taskroutine 2440. FIGS. 19C and 19D, taken together, illustrate aspects ofgenerating a visualization 2980 of a DAG 2270 to visually indicate aconnection or a lack of connection between a pair of task routines. FIG.19E illustrates aspects of the generation and storage of a new DAG 2270from a visualization 2980 of an edited DAG 2270.

FIG. 19A illustrates aspects of the generation of a macro 2470 for eachtask routine 2440 that may be included in a DAG 2270 as an intermediatestep to generating the DAG 2270. Such an intermediate step may beperformed where the objects that serve as the sources of the informationto be depicted in a DAG 2270 are located remotely from where avisualization 2980 of the DAG 2270 is to be displayed, such as wherethose objects are stored within federated area(s) 2566 maintained by oneor more federated devices 2500, but the DAG 2270 is to be displayed by asource device 2100 or a reviewing device 2800. In such situations, theone or more macros 2470 that are so generated may then be transmitted tothe device that is to display the visualization 2980 to enable the DAG2270 to be generated thereat from the one or more macros 2470. However,it should be noted that, where the DAG 2270 is to be generated and/or avisualization 2980 of it is to be displayed locally (e.g., by acomputing device with more direct access to the objects that serve asthe sources of the information to be depicted), then the DAG 2270 may begenerated more directly, and while foregoing the generation of macro(s)2470. Also, as an alternative to the generation and transmission ofmacros 2470 to a remote device that is to display a DAG 2270 generatedtherefrom, the DAG 2270, itself, may be generated locally (e.g., at oneor more of the federated devices 2500) and then an image of the DAG 2270may be transmitted to the device that is to display a visualization 2980of the DAG 2270.

As depicted, an example task routine 2440 from which at least a portionof a DAG 2270 may be generated may include executable instructions 2447written in any of a variety of programming languages and comments 2448written in a syntax for comments that may be based on the programminglanguage in which the executable instructions 2447 are written. Itshould be noted that, for the sake of understandability in presentation,what is depicted is a deliberately simplified example of a task routine2440 in which there is a single block of comments 2448 that precedes asingle block of executable instructions 2447. As also depicted, and inkeeping with the earlier discussed approaches to enabling the automatedselection of task routines 2440 to perform specific tasks, the depictedexample task routine 2440 may include the flow task identifier 2241 thatidentifies the particular task that is performed by the task routine2440.

As also depicted, and in keeping with the earlier discussed approachesto organizing task routines 2440 for later retrieval and use, thedepicted example task routine 2440 may be stored within a federated area2566 in which a task routine database 2564 may also be stored that mayemploy an indexing scheme by which the task routine 2440 is able to beretrieved by the task routine identifier 2441 assigned to it. As has wasalso previously discussed, the task routine database 2564 may correlateflow task identifiers 2241 of tasks to be performed with task routineidentifiers 2441 of the task routine(s) 2440 that perform each of thosetasks. However, as previously noted, other mechanisms than a databasemay be employed to enable the retrieval of task routines 2440 for use inthe performances of their respective tasks during the performance of ajob flow. As has also been discussed, the federated area 2566 in whichthe depicted example task routine 2440 is stored may be one of a set ofmultiple related federated areas 2566, such as a linear hierarchy or ahierarchical tree. Thus, as depicted, the portal data 2539 (or otherdata structure) may store various parameters associated with each of themultiple federated areas 2566 within such a set of federated areas 2566,including aspects of relationships thereamong, and separate federatedarea identifiers 2568 and/or 2569 for each.

In executing the interpretation component 2547, the processor(s) 2550 ofthe one or more federated devices 2500 may be caused to parse thecomments 2448 (whether divided into multiple blocks throughout the taskroutine 2440, or not) to identify, retrieve and interpret at leastportions of the comments 2448 that specify aspects of inputs and/oroutputs of the task routine 2440. Such aspects that may be so specifiedmay include, and are not limited to, data types of data objects receivedas inputs and/or generated as outputs, and/or indexing schemes that maybe employed in accessing data within data objects. Some of such comments2448 may identify particular data objects used as inputs and/orgenerated as outputs, and this may be done to provide default selectionsof data objects. Alternatively, others of such comments 2448 may avoiddoing so as part of an approach to allowing particular data object(s) tobe specified by a job flow definition, or in any of a variety of otherways, during the performance of a job flow in which the task routine maybe executed. In parsing the comments 2448, the processor(s) 2550 may becaused to retrieve various rules for interpreting the contents of thetask routine 2440 from a stored set of parameter rules 2537, includinglanguage interpretation rules for at least the particular programminglanguage in which the task routine 2440 was written. The processor(s)2550 may be caused to use such rules to distinguish the comments 2448from at least the executable instructions 2447, and may use such rulesto interpret them.

In further executing the interpretation component 2547, the processor(s)2550 of the one or more federated devices 2500 may be caused to generatea macro 2470 corresponding to the task routine 2440 that includes one ormore input/output (I/O) parameters 2478 that indicate the detailsconcerning inputs and/or outputs that are retrieved from the executableinstructions 2447 and/or the comments 2448 of the task routine 2440.Additionally, other pieces of information may also be included in themacro 2470, such as the flow task identifier 2241 indicating the taskperformed when the task routine 2440 is executed, and/or the federatedarea identifiers 2568 and/or 2569 of the federated area 2566 in whichthe depicted example task routine 2440 is stored.

In some embodiments, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federateddevices 2500 may additionally compare aspects of inputs and/or outputsindicated in the comments 2448 to how those aspects are actuallyimplemented in the executable instructions 2447 to determine whetherthey match. Where discrepancies are detected, side by side sets of I/Oparameters 2478 may be stored within the depicted example macro 2470,with one based on the comments 2448 and the other based on theexecutable instructions 2447, as a way of indicating a discrepancytherebetween. This may be deemed desirable to allow the details of sucha discrepancy to be displayed as part of the DAG 2270 that is latergenerated from the macro 2470.

Turning to FIG. 19B, as depicted, an example DAG 2270 may be generatedand then visually presented in an example visualization 2980 in whichthe example task routine 2440 of FIG. 19A is represented with acombination of graph objects, including a task graph object 2984accompanied by an input data graph object 2983 and an output data graphobject 2987. It should be noted that, for the sake of understandabilityin presentation, what is depicted is a deliberately simplified exampleof a DAG 2270 in which there is a single task routine 2440 depicted thathas a single input and a single output. However, it is envisioned thatother embodiments of the DAG 2270 may be generated that may includerepresentations of a great many task routines 2440 of which many wouldmay include multiple inputs and/or multiple outputs.

As depicted in the example visualization 2980, the graph objects 2983,2984 and 2987 that form such a representation of the task routine 2440of FIG. 19A may each be selected to visually conform, to at least somedegree, to version 2.0 of the BPMN specification for visualrepresentations of objects. More specifically, a rounded rectangle maybe selected to be the task graph object 2984, and circles connected tothe task graph object 2984 by arrows may be selected to be the datagraph objects 2983 and 2987. In generating the task graph object 2984,some form of identifier of the task routine 2440 may be placed withinthe rounded rectangle shape thereof. In some embodiments, such anidentifier may be the task routine identifier 2441 assigned to the taskroutine 2440 and/or the flow task identifier 2241 that identifies thetask performed by the task routine 2440, each of which may be includedwithin and retrieved from the macro 2470. However, as previouslydiscussed, at least the task routine identifier 2441 may be a hash valueof numerous bytes in size generated by taking a hash of at least aportion of the task routine 2440 such that the task routine identifier2441 may be cumbersome for personnel to read, recognize and use as amechanism to uniquely identify the task routine 2440. Therefore, thetask routine 2440 may be assigned a less cumbersome textual name thatmay be placed within the rounded rectangle shape of the task graphobject 2984. It may be that such an assigned textual name may be basedon a name given to the file in which the task routine 2440 is stored inembodiments in which objects are stored within the federated area(s)2566 as files with textual file names. Alternatively or additionally, itmay be that such an assigned textual name may be specified in thecomments 2448 of the task routine 2440.

Additionally, in embodiments in which the task routine 2440 is storedwithin a federated area 2566 that belongs to a set of related federatedareas 2566, some form of identifier of the specific federated area 2566in which the task routine 2440 is stored may be placed within therounded rectangle shape of the task graph object 2984. In someembodiments, such an identifier may be the human-readable federated areaidentifier 2568. As previously discussed, it may be that thehuman-readable federated area identifier 2568 is a URL that may includea textual name given to the federated area 2566, and may additionallyindicate a path among multiple federated areas 2566 by which thefederated area 2566 that stores the task routine 2440 is connected to abase federated area 2566 (unless the federated area 2566 in which thetask routine 2440 is stored is the base federated area). Further, inembodiments in which the human-readable federated area identifier 2568is a URL and in which the task routine 2440 is assigned a textual namebased on a file name, the human-readable federated area identifier 2568may be combined with such a name into a single string of text within therounded rectangle that both identifies the task routine 2440 andspecifies its location among the set of related federated areas 2566 inrelation to the base federated area thereof.

In generating the input data graph object 2983, some form of identifierof the input data object represented thereby may be placed within oradjacent to the input data graph object 2983. Similarly, in generatingthe output data graph object 2987, some form of identifier of the outputdata object represented thereby may be placed within or adjacent to theoutput data graph object 2987. As previously discussed, the comments2448 within a task routine 2440 may provide a more or less specificindication of a data object serving as an input or an output, and thismay depend on whether it is intended that a data object is to bespecified when the task routine 2440 is executed as part of aperformance of a job flow, or the identity of the data object is alreadyknown such that it is able to be specifically identified in the comments2448.

Focusing, for sake of ease of discussion, on the input data graph object2983, if the identity of the specific data object for this input (e.g.,the depicted example data set 2330) is already known at the time thetask routine 2440 is written, then some form of identifier of thatspecific data object may be specified in the comments 2448 and/or in theexecutable instructions 2447. In some embodiments, such an identifiermay be the data object identifier 2331 assigned to the depicted exampledata set 2330. However, as previously discussed, as with the taskroutine identifier 2441 of the task routine 2440, the data objectidentifier 2331 may also be a hash value of numerous bytes in size suchthat the data object identifier 2331 may also be cumbersome forpersonnel to read, recognize and use. Therefore, as with the taskroutine 2440, the depicted data set 2330 may be assigned a lesscumbersome textual name that may be incorporated into its data setmetadata 2338, and this textual name may be placed within or adjacent tothe circular input data graph object 2983. As with such a textual namethat may be assigned to the task routine 2440, such a textual nameassigned to the data set 2330 may be based on a name given to the filein which the data set 2330 is stored in embodiments in which objects arestored within the federated area(s) 2566 as files with textual filenames.

However, and still focusing on the input data graph object 2983, if theidentity of the specific data object for this input is not already knownat the time the task routine 2440 is written, then the name of avariable or some other form of placeholder may be specified in thecomments 2448 and/or in the executable instructions 2447. In suchembodiments, it may be the name or other identifier of that variable orother type of placeholder that may be placed within or adjacent to thecircular input data graph object 2983. It should be noted that suchapproaches to providing a visual indication of the identity of the inputdata object associated with the depicted input data graph object 2983may also be applied to providing a visual indication of the identity ofthe output data object (not shown) associated with the depicted outputdata graph object 2987.

FIGS. 19C and 19D, taken together, depict an embodiment of an approachto conveying either the presence of a dependency or the lack of adependency between two task routines in visualizations 2980 ofcontrasting examples of DAGs 2270. Each of the example visualizations2980 of FIGS. 19C and 19D includes representations of two task routines2440 a and 2440 b, where the task routine 2440 a is represented by acombination of a task graph object 2984 a and corresponding data graphobjects 2983 and 2987, and where the task routine 2440 b is representedby a combination of a task graph object 2984 b and other correspondingdata graph objects 2983 and 2987. However, in the visualization 2980 ofFIG. 19C, a vertical arrangement of the representations of the taskroutines 2440 a and 2440 b is used to provide a visual indication of nodependency therebetween, such that there is no data object output by oneof the task routines 2440 a and 2440 b that is needed as an input to theother. In contrast, in the visualization 2980 of FIG. 19D, a horizontalarrangement of the representations of the task routines 2440 a and 2440b provides the suggestion of a left-to-right path of dependency from thetask routine 2440 a to the task routine 2440 b. Reinforcing thisindication of such a dependency is an additional arrow pointing from therepresentation of the task routine 2440 a to the representation of thetask routine 2440 b. It should be noted that, although such a use of anarrow is depicted as providing an indication of such a dependency(regardless of whether horizontal arrangement is also used), any of avariety of other forms of indication of such a dependency may be used inother embodiments. By way of example, color coding, graphical symbolsand/or other form of visual connector indicative of the dependency maybe used to.

In situations, in which a visualization 2980 is to be generated of a DAG2270 that includes multiple task routines 2440, the details of theinputs and outputs of each of the task routines may be analyzed toidentify any instances that may be present of a particular data objecthaving been specified as both an output of one task routine 2440 and aninput of another task routine 2440. Such a situation, if found, may bedeemed to indicate a dependency in which the one task routine 2440provides the particular data object that is needed as an input to theother 2440, such as what is depicted in FIG. 19D between the output oftask routine 2440 a and the input of task routine 2440 b. Again, as aresult of such a dependency, execution of the task routine 2440 a may berequired to occur ahead of the execution of the task routine 2440 b soas to ensure that the output of the task routine 2440 a is able to beprovided to the task routine 2440 b for use during its execution.

FIG. 19E depicts aspects of the generation and storage, within afederated area 2566, of a new DAG 2270 from a visualization 2980 of anearlier DAG 2270 that may have been edited. More specifically, in someembodiments a UI may be provided to allow editing of aspects of one ormore task routines 2440 of an existing DAG 2270 by graphically editingcorresponding aspects of graph objects 2983, 2984 and/or 2987 of one ormore corresponding representations of task routines 2440. Thus, where avisualization 2980 is initially generated of a DAG 2270, provision maybe made for such editing to allow details of a new DAG 2270 to bedeveloped. Further, upon completion of such editing, the new DAG 2270thusly developed may then be stored within a federated area 2566, andmay subsequently be used as at least a basis for a new job flowdefinition 2220 that defines a new job flow.

Such editing may entail changing the visual indication(s) of one or moreI/O parameters 2478 that may be visually indicated within or adjacent toan input data graph object 2983 or an output data graph object 2987 tothereby change the one or more I/O parameters 2478 that correspond tothose visual indication(s). More specifically, where a name or otheridentifier of a data object 2330 or 2370 that is generated as an outputof a task routine 2440 is visually presented adjacent to thecorresponding output data graph object 2987, an edit made in which thatname or other identifier is changed in the visualization 2980 maytrigger a corresponding change in what data object 2330 or 2370 isgenerated as an output. Correspondingly, where a name or otheridentifier of a data object 2330 or 2370 that is used as an input to atask routine 2440 is visually presented adjacent to the correspondinginput data graph object 2983, an edit made in which that name or otheridentifier is changed in the visualization 2980 may trigger acorresponding change in what data object 2330 or 2370 is used as aninput. As a result of such editing capabilities being provided,dependencies between task routines may be created, changed and/orentirely removed. In at least this way, the order of performance oftasks, and/or which tasks are able to be performed in parallel, may bechanged as part of creating a new DAG 2270 that may be employed as atleast part of a new job flow definition 2220.

As previously discussed, a DAG 2270 may be stored in a federated area asa script generated in a process description language such as BPMN. Insome embodiments, at least a subset of the job flow definitions 2220maintained within one or more federated areas 2566 by the one or morefederated devices 2500 may also be stored, at least partially, asscripts in such a process description language as BPMN. Thus, there maybe few, if any, differences in the contents of DAGs 2270 vs. job flowdefinitions 2220 such that a DAG 2270 may be usable as a job flowdefinition 2220 with little or no modification. It is for this reasonthat DAGs 2270 may be stored alongside job flow definitions 2220 in theearlier described job flow database 2562.

FIGS. 20A, 20B, 20C and 20D, together, illustrate the manner in which anexample set of job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200 q 2 may beused in combination to perform a larger set of tasks that result in thegeneration of a set of output data objects (e.g., the depicted resultreports 2770 q 1 a, 2770 q 1 b and 2770 q 2) from a set of input dataobjects (e.g., the depicted flow input data sets 2330 x 1 and 2330 u 1).FIG. 20B additionally illustrates the manner in which the objectsassociated with each of the job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200q 2 (including their job flow definitions 2220 x, 2220 u, 2220 q 1 and2220 q 2) may be distributed among the example linear hierarchy offederated areas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q first introduced in FIG. 15A.FIGS. 20C and 20D, together, additionally illustrate aspects andlimitations of the accessibility of objects within each of thesefederated areas to other devices 2100 or 2800, depending on whetheraccess is provided through the use of transfer areas. For sake of easeof discussion and understanding, the same example set of job flows 2200x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200 q 2 and example linear hierarchy offederated areas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q are depicted (or are at leastassociated with what is depicted) throughout all of FIGS. 20A-D, as wellas throughout all of subsequent FIGS. 21A-H and 22A-C. Also, it shouldbe noted that each of these job flows in this example set of job flowsis a deliberately relatively simple example presented herein forpurposes of illustration, and should not be taken as limiting what isdescribed and claimed herein to such relatively simple embodiments. Morespecifically, while the job flow 2200 q 1 is depicted with some degreeof detail for purposes of illustration, each of the other job flows ofthis example set of job flows is deliberately depicted with a lesserdegree of detail.

FIG. 20A depicts aspects of a set of past performances in which each ofthe job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200 q 2 was performed aonce, and in an order that enabled the result reports 2770 q 1 a, 2770 q1 b and 2770 q 2 to ultimately be generated from the flow input datasets 2330 x 1 and 2330 u 1. More precisely, the depicted performances ofthe job flows 2200 x and 2200 u each occurred at a time preceding thedepicted performance of the job flow 2200 q 1, thereby generating thedepicted mid-flow data sets 2370 x 2 and 2370 u 2, respectively, thatwere both subsequently used as inputs to the depicted performance of thejob flow 2200 q 1 that generated the result reports 2770 q 1 a and 2770q 1 b. Correspondingly, the depicted performance of the job flow 2200 uoccurred at a time preceding the depicted performance of the job flow2200 q 2, thereby generating the depicted mid-flow data set 2370 u 3that was subsequently used as an input to the depicted performance ofthe job flow 2200 q 2 that generated the result report 2770 q 2.

As earlier discussed, the provision of federated areas 2566 and theenforcement of a set of rules for the storage, maintenance and use ofobjects associated with the analysis routines is meant to enable moreefficient reuse of preexisting portions of programming code, as well asmore effective accountability for the functionality of those portions ofprogramming code. Thus, as has been discussed, it may be that differentones of the job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200 q 2 were devisedand created at different times by different developers or groups ofdevelopers with little or no connection to each other, such that somedevelopers may have opportunistically leveraged the work done by otherdevelopers before them. Alternatively, it may be that this example setof job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200 q 2 were developedtogether by a team of developers associated with a single governmental,corporate and/or scholastic entity where it may have been deemedadvantageous to divide the development of a relatively large and/orcomplex analysis routine into separate job flows that may be developedtogether. Regardless of the exact manner in which each of these jobflows came into existence, as depicted, they have been used together togenerate the result reports 2770 q 1 a, 2770 q 1 b and 2770 q 2 from theflow input data sets 2330 x 1 and 2330 u 1 such that there arenecessarily dependencies among these job flows in doing so.

As previously mentioned, the job flow 2200 q 1 is depicted in FIG. 20Ain greater detail than the other three job flows 2200 x, 2200 u and 2200q 2. In this more detailed depiction of job flow 2200 q 1, it can beseen that job flow 2200 q 1 includes four tasks that, during thedepicted performance of the job flow 2200 q 1, were performed by fourtask routines, specifically, the depicted task routines 2400 q 1 a, 2400q 1 b, 2400 q 1 c and 2400 q 1 d. As also depicted, during that pastperformance, task routines 2400 q 1 a and 2400 q 1 b used the mid-flowdata sets 2370 x 2 and 2370 u 2, respectively, as inputs. The taskroutine 2440 q 1 a provided outputs to the task routines 2440 q 1 c and2440 q 1 d, while the task routine 2440 q 1 b provided its single outputto the task routine 2440 q 1 d. From the output received from the taskroutine 2440 q 1 a as input, the task routines 2440 q 1 c generated theresult report 2770 q 1 a as an output data object, and from the outputsreceived from the task routines 2440 q 1 a and 2440 q 1 b as inputs, thetask routine 2440 q 1 d generated the result report 2770 q 1 b as anoutput data object. Just as the aforedescribed exchanges of mid-flowdata sets 2370 x 2, 2370 u 2 and 2370 u 3 created dependencies among thedepicted performances of the job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200q 2 in generating the result reports 2770 q 1 a, 2770 q 1 b and 2770 q2, these exchanges of outputs to inputs among these four task routinescreated dependencies thereamong in generating the result reports 2770 q1 a and 2770 q 1 b.

Turning to FIG. 20B, along with FIG. 20A, at least some of the objectsassociated with the depicted performance of the job flow 2200 x,including the corresponding job flow definition 2220 x, may be storedwithin the base federated area 2566 x; at least some of the objectsassociated with the depicted performance of the job flow 2200 u,including the corresponding job flow definition 2220 u, may be storedwithin the intervening federated area 2566 u; and at least some of theobjects associated with the depicted performances of both of the jobflows 2200 q 1 and 2200 q 2, including the corresponding job flowdefinitions 2220 q 1 and 2220 q 2, respectively, may be stored withinthe private federated area 2566 q. As previously discussed, starting inconnection with FIG. 15A, where a hierarchical relationship exists amongtwo or more federated areas 2566, as in the case of the linear hierarchyof the federated areas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q, the one or morefederated devices 2500 may impose a set of relationships thereamong,including an inheritance relationship, a priority relationship and/or adependency relationship. As was also previously discussed, starting inconnection with FIG. 15A, such relationships may give rise to differing“perspectives” that may control aspects of what objects among ahierarchy of federated areas are allowed to be accessible by particularpersonnel and/or through particular devices that may communicate withthe one or more federated devices 2500 to access objects. And sucheffects on access to objects may also control aspects of performances ofjob flows.

Turning to FIG. 20C, such relationships among the example linearhierarchy of the federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566 x may enablethe depicted device 2100 or 2800, if it has been granted access to theobjects stored within the private federated area 2566 q, to also begranted access to the objects stored within the federated areas 2566 uand 2566 x. Also, such relationships and such grant of access to thedepicted device 2100 or 2800 may enable a performance of either of thejob flows 2200 q 1 or 2200 q 2 (which, again, have their job flowdefinitions stored within the private federated area 2566 q) to use theobjects stored within the federated areas 2566 u and 2566 x in additionto the objects stored within the private federated area 2566 q. As wasdiscussed in the introduction to this example hierarchy of federatedareas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566 x provide in connection with FIG. 15A,this may arise from the differing levels of restriction associated witheach of these federated areas in which the private federated area 2566 qis subject to the greatest degree of restriction in access thereto,while the base federated area 2566 x is subject to the least. As aresult, the depicted device 2100 or 2800 has the access required toenable it to request (and be granted) each of the performances of thefour job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1 and 2200 q 2 depicted in FIG.20A, since access has been granted to the depicted device 2100 or 2800to all three of the federated areas 2500 x, 2500 u and 2500 q, and theobjects stored therein.

However, and turning to FIG. 20D, such relationships among the examplelinear hierarchy of the federated areas 2566 q, 2566 u and 2566 x maynot come into play to such a degree where the device 2100 or 2800 is notactually directly granted access to any of the federated areas 2566 x,2566 u or 2566 q. Instead, and as previously discussed in relation to atleast FIGS. 15G-H, a device external to the one or more federateddevices 2500, such as the depicted device 2100 or 2800, may be granted,through a transfer area 2166 or 2866 defined within its storage 2160 or2860, respectively, access to objects that are stored within acorresponding transfer area 2666 defined within a federated area 2566based on a synchronization relationship between the transfer area 2566and the transfer area 2166 or 2866. As a result, the access granted tothe depicted device 2100 or 2800 may be limited to the objects that arestored within the portion of that federated area 2566 that has beendefined as falling within that transfer area 2666. Thus, where thedepicted device 2100 or 2800 has access to objects stored within thedepicted transfer area 2666 q defined within the private federated area2566 q, that access may not include other objects stored within anotherportion of the private federated area 2566 q that does not fall withinthe transfer area 2666 q. In essence, the synchronization relationshipinvolving the transfer area 2666 q defines a limited window throughwhich the depicted device 2100 or 2800 may access objects stored withinjust a portion of the private federated area 2566 q that is includedwithin the transfer area 2666 q. And thus, the depicted device 2100 or2800 may have no access to any object stored within either of thefederated areas 2566 x or 2566 u unless similar synchronizationrelationships are also in place with the depicted transfer areas 2666 xand 2666 u. And yet, even with such additional synchronizationrelationships in place, such access to objects within the federatedareas 2566 x and 2566 u may be similarly limited to what objects arestored within the portions of each of those federated areas that isincluded within the transfer areas 2666 x and 2666 u, respectively.

FIGS. 21A, 21B, 21C, 21D, 21E, 21F, 21G and 21H, together, illustratethe manner in which a superset job flow 2200 z capable of generating aparticular previously generated output data object may be derived from aset of previously performed job flows that includes the output job flowthat was previously performed to generate the particular output dataobject. FIGS. 21A and 21B illustrate alternate embodiments in which therequest to generate the superset job flow 2200 z may be received. FIGS.21C and 21D illustrate alternate embodiments of identifying and/orretrieving details of at least the output job flow arising fromdifferent object identifiers that may be included in the request. FIGS.21E-G, together, illustrate the assembly of at least pruned forms ofmultiple job flows to derive the superset job flow 2200 z. FIG. 21Hillustrates a portion of the assembly of at least pruned forms ofmultiple job flows to derive an alternate variant of the superset jobflow 2200 z.

It should be noted that, throughout the following discussion associatedwith FIGS. 21A-H, the example set of job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1and 2200 q 2 introduced in FIG. 20A above is used to in describing thegeneration of the superset job flow 2200 z. Additionally, reference ismade to the manner in which the objects associated with this example setof job flows are stored across the example linear hierarchy of federatedareas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q that is depicted in FIG. 20B. Further,reference is made to the differences in limitations of access to objectsimposed by the differing types of access granted to a device 2100 or2800 depicted in FIGS. 20C and 20D.

Turning to FIG. 21A, an embodiment of the distributed system 2000 mayinclude a device 2100 or 2800 that has been granted access to one ormore of the federated areas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q as maintained bythe one or more federated devices 2500 and/or the one or more storagedevices 2600. The processor(s) 2150 or 2850 may be caused by executionof a browser/terminal component 2149 or 2849 of the control routine 2140or 2840, respectively, to communicate with the one or more federateddevices 2500 to directly access one or more federated areas 2566 towhich the device 2100 or 2800 has been granted access (or to whichpersonnel operating the device 2100 or 2800 have been granted access) toaccess objects stored therein. The processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 may be caused by execution of the portalcomponent 2549 of the control routine 2540 to monitor for the receipt ofa variety of requests from the device 2100 or 2800 to perform acorresponding variety of operations, as has been previously described.In so doing, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the interactioncomponent 2548 to cooperate with the device 2100 or 2800 to use an inputdevice 2110 or 2810, and/or a display 2180 or 2880 thereof to provide auser interface by which personnel operating the device 2100 or 2800 mayoriginate such requests.

Turning to FIG. 21B, another embodiment of the distributed system 2000may include a device 2100 or 2800 that has been granted a more limitedaccess to objects in one or more of the federated areas 2566 x, 2566 uand 2566 q through one or more of corresponding transfer areas 2666 x,2666 u and 2666 q, respectively. Such limited access may be as describedin reference to FIG. 20D, in which a separate transfer area 2666 x, 2666u and 2666 q is instantiated within each of one or more of the federatedareas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q, respectively, and in which each of thetransfer areas 2666 x, 2666 u and/or 2566 q is subject to asynchronization relationship with a corresponding transfer area 2166x/2866 x, 2166 u/2866 u and/or 2166 q/2866 q instantiated within thestorage 2160 or 2860 of the device 2100 or 2800, respectively. Theprocessor(s) 2150 or 2850 may be caused by execution of an interactioncomponent 2148 or 2848 of the control routine 2140 or 2840 to operatethe input device 2110 or 2810 and/or the display 2180 or 2880 to providea user interface by which personnel operating the device 2100 or 2800,respectively, are able to originate requests that may be transmitted tothe one or more federated devices 2500.

Referring to both FIGS. 21A and 21B, and regardless of the exact mannerin which a user interface may be provided or in which the device 2100 or2800 may be provided access of any variety to the federated areas 2566x, 2566 u and/or 2566 q, among such requests that may be received by theone or more federated devices 2500 from the device 2100 or 2800 may be arequest to generate a superset job flow 2200 z that, if executed, wouldbe capable of repeating the generation of a particular output dataobject, specifically, the result report 2770 q 1 a. As will shortly bediscussed in greater detail, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused byexecution of various components of the control routine 2540 to retrieveand analyze various objects associated with the earlier described anddepicted past performances of the job flows 2200 x, 2200 u, 2200 q 1and/or 2200 q 2, and to then generate and/or provide a visualization2980 z of the new superset job flow 2200 z.

Turning to FIG. 21C, in one embodiment of such a request, it may be thatthe request includes the data object identifier 2331 q 1 a that uniquelyidentifies the result report 2770 q 1 a, thereby expressly identifyingthe single output data object that the superset job flow 2200 z is to becapable of being used to repeat the generation of. In response toreceiving such an embodiment of the request, the processor(s) 2550 maybe caused by execution of the database component 2545 to use the dataobject identifier 233 lqla to search the instance log database 2567 forthe instance log 2720 q 1 that documents aspects of the past performanceof an output job flow that directly resulted in the generation of theresult report 2770 q 1 a. As depicted and previously discussed inreference to FIG. 20A, the result report 2770 q 1 a was generated as aresult of a past performance of the job flow 2200 q 1, and therefore,the job flow 2200 q 1 is the output job flow that directly generated theresult report 2770 q 1 a as an output data object.

With the instance log 2720 q 1 retrieved, the processor(s) 2550 may becaused by the selection component 2543 to use the job flow identifier2221 q 1 that uniquely identifies the job flow 2200 q 1 to search thejob flow database 2562 for the job flow definition 2220 q 1 that definesaspects of the job flow 2200 q 1. As has been discussed, a job flowdefinition 2220 may include indications of the tasks to be performedduring a performance of its corresponding job flow, and the order inwhich those tasks are to be performed.

Turning to FIG. 21D, in another embodiment of such a request, it may bethat the request includes the job flow identifier 2221 ₈ 1 of job flowdefinition 2220 q 1 for the output job flow 2200 q 1, but not the dataobject identifier 233 lqla of the result report 2770 q 1 a. This mayarise where personnel originating the request are unable to recall suchmore specific information. In response to receiving such anotherembodiment of the request, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused byexecution of the database component 2545 to use the job flow identifier2221 ₈ 1 to search the job flow database 2562 for the job flowdefinition 2220 q 1. The processor(s) 2550 may also be caused to use thejob flow identifier 2221 ₈ 1 to search the instance log database 2567for all instance logs 2720 that document a past performance of the jobflow 2200 q 1. If more than one of such instance logs 2720 are found,then the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by execution of theinterpretation component 2547 and/or the interaction component 2548 togenerate a prompt to personnel operating the device 2100 or 2800 toselect a previously generated output data object that has been directlygenerated by the job flow 2200 q 1 in one of the past performances thathas been documented in one of the found instance logs 2720. If just asingle instance log 2720 is found, then the processor(s) 2550 may becaused by execution of the interpretation component 2547 and/or theinteraction component 2548 to generate a prompt to personnel operatingthe device 2100 or 2800 to confirm that the single identified pastperformance did generate an output data object that the superset jobflow 2200 z is to be capable of generating, again, and to select apreviously generated output data object that has been directly generatedby the job flow 2200 q 1 in the single past performance, unless there isjust one output data object that was so generated. Alternatively, it maybe the processor(s) 2150 or 2850 that may be caused by execution of theinterpretation component 2147 or 2847 and/or the interaction component2148 or 2848 to generate such prompt(s).

Regardless of whether it is the processor(s) 2550 of the one or morefederated devices 2500 or the processor(s) 2150 or 2850 of the device2100 or 2800, respectively, that generates such a prompt(s), it may bethat such prompt(s) include a visual presentation 2980 of a separate DAG2270 that graphically depicts various aspects of each such pastperformance of the job flow 2200 q 1 that is identified, includingaspects of each output data object that was generated by each such pastperformance. Through such a detailed visual presentation, personneloperating the device 2100 or 2800 may be guided to specify which outputdata object(s) are desired to be the output data object(s) that thesuperset job flow 2200 z is to be capable of repeating the generationof, either by being guided to directly selecting the output dataobject(s) or by being guided to select their corresponding pastperformance. For sake of this discussion of this example, it is presumedthat such a prompt results in the selection of a single output dataobject, specifically, the result report 2770 q 1 a.

Turning to FIGS. 21E-G, regardless of the exact manner in which theoutput data object (i.e., the result report 2770 q 1 a) and/or itscorresponding past performance of the output job flow 2200 q 1 isidentified, the processor(s) 2550 of the one or more federated devices2500 may be caused by the interaction component 2548 and theinterpretation component 2547 to generate a series of visualpresentations 2980. Alternatively, it may be the processor(s) 2150 or2850 of the device 2100 or 2800 that is caused by the interactioncomponent 2148 or 2848 and the interpretation component 2147 or 2847,respectively, to do so. Each of the DAGs 2270 included in such a seriesof visual presentations 2980 may depict at least pruned form(s) of pastperformances of one or more of the job flows 2200 that were involved inthe generation of the output data object as those past performances ofthose job flows 2200 are identified and analyzed. Such a series ofvisual presentations 2980 may end with a visual presentation 2980 z of aDAG 2270 z of the superset job flow 2200 z. However, as an alternativeto such a series of visual presentations 2980, it may be that just thevisual presentation 2980 z of the DAG 2270 z of the superset job flow2200 z is generated. Regardless of whether a series of visualpresentations 2980 is generated or just the visual presentation 2980 zis generated, such visual presentation(s) may then be displayed topersonnel operating the device 2100 or 2800 via the display 2180 or2880, respectively.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 21E, where such a series of visualpresentations 2980 are generated, such a series may begin with thedepicted visual presentation 2980 of a DAG 2270 of the output job flow2200 q 1 by which the result report 2770 q 1 a was previously directlygenerated. As depicted, such a DAG 2270 may be generated to provide avisual indication (e.g., through the use of shading, as depicted) of asubset of the tasks of the output job flow 2200 q 1 that were previouslyperformed by a corresponding subset of task routines 2440 having beendetermined as being unnecessary to that past generation of the resultreport 2770 q 1 a such that those tasks need not be included in thesuperset job flow 2200 z. Such a determination may arise from ananalysis of the dependencies among the tasks within the job flow 2200 q1 that the processor(s) 2550 may be caused to perform by theinterpretation component 2547, or that the processor(s) 2150 or 2850 maybe caused to perform by the interpretation component 2147 or 2847.Stated differently, such tasks that have been deemed to be sounnecessary may be selected to be “pruned” from the job flow 2200 q 1,thereby resulting in a pruned form of the job flow 2200 q 1 forinclusion in the superset job flow 2200 z.

Turning more specifically to FIG. 21F, where such a series of visualpresentations 2980 are generated, such a series may subsequently includethe depicted visual presentation 2980 of a DAG 2270 of the output jobflow 2200 q 1 in which such pruning of the job flow 2200 q 1 is depictedas having been performed, thereby providing a view of the resultingpruned form of the job flow 2200 q 1 that is to be included in thesuperset job flow 2200 z.

However, as also depicted, and regardless of whether such a series ofvisual presentations 2980 are generated, further analysis performed bythe processor(s) 2550 or by the processor(s) 2150 or 2850 may lead tothe identification of the mid-flow data set 2370 x 2 as the sole inputdata object to the pruned form of the job flow 2200 q 1. Theprocessor(s) 2550 may then be caused by the database component 2545 touse the data object identifier 2331 x 2 of the mid-flow data set 2370 x2 to search the instance log database 2567 for the instance log 2720 xthat documents aspects of the past performance of the preceding job flow(i.e., a job flow that precedes at least the output job flow) thatdirectly resulted in the generation of the mid-flow data set 2370 x 2.As depicted and previously discussed in reference to FIG. 20A, themid-flow data set 2370 x 2 was generated as a result of a pastperformance of the job flow 2200 x. Thus, the job flow 2200 x becomes apreceding job flow to the output job flow 2200 q 1. With the instancelog 2720 x retrieved, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by theselection component 2543 to use the job flow identifier 2221 x thatuniquely identifies the job flow 2200 x to search the job flow database2562 for the job flow definition 2220 x that defines aspects of the jobflow 2200 x.

FIG. 21G depicts aspects of the generation of the visual presentation2980 z of the DAG 2270 z of the superset job flow 2200 z. As depicted,the DAG 2270 z may not include a depiction of internal details of thetasks within the job flow 2200 x as a result of an analysis ofdependencies within the job flow 2200 x resulting in a determinationthat there is no portion thereof that is able to be pruned, andaccordingly, no need to provide a visualization that would be detailedenough to show the results of such pruning. Also, a search of theinstance log database 2567 may reveal that the flow input data set 2330x 1 was not generated by the performance of any job flow for which anydocumentation in the form of an instance log 2720 exists, or that is atleast accessible such that it could be found. Thus, with no otherpreceding job flows able to be identified, and with no further pruningpossible within either the preceding job flow 2200 x or the pruned formof the output job flow 2200 q 1, the superset job flow 2200 z is derivedto include the preceding job flow 2200 x and the pruned form of theoutput job flow 2200 q 1. Also, the preceding job flow 2200 x becomesthe sole input job flow of the superset job flow 2200 z.

FIG. 21H presents an alternate variant of the visual presentation 2980 zof the DAG 2270 z of the superset job flow 2200 z that may result wherelimitations in access to at least a subset of objects associated withthe preceding job flow 2200 x prevents obtaining the information neededfrom among federated area(s) 2566 to analyze the preceding job flow 2200x and/or to otherwise enable its inclusion in the superset job flow 2200z. This may arise where the device 2100 or 2800 has access to one ormore of the federated areas 2566 x, 2566 u and/or 2566 q that is limitedin a manner that allows the fact of the existence of the job flow 2200 xto be discovered (e.g., where the instance log 2720 q 1 is able to befound), but further information concerning the job flow 2200 x has beenrendered inaccessible (e.g., where the job flow definition 2220 x thatdefines the job flow 2200 x cannot be accessed). Such a situation mayarise as a result of the device 2100 or 2800 having access to objectswithin one or more of the federated areas 2566 x, 2566 u and 2566 q viathe use of transfer areas. By way of example, and as previouslydiscussed, it may be that the instance log 2720 x happens to be storedwithin a portion of the federated area 2566 x that is included withinthe transfer area 2666 x (best viewed in FIG. 20D), but job flowdefinition 2220 x is stored within a portion of the federated area 2566x that is not included within the transfer area 2666 x. As a result,access to the job flow definition 2220 x would not permitted through asynchronization relationship.

Alternatively, this may similarly arise where the device 2100 or 2800has access to the job flow definition 2220 x, but not to the flow inputdata set 2330 x 1. Under such circumstances, even though sufficientinformation is available to include the preceding job flow 2200 x in thesuperset job flow 2200 z, the flow input data set 2330 x 1 needed torepeat the job flow 2200 x as part of a performance of the superset jobflow 2200 z is not available.

Regardless of the exact circumstances that may cause an inability toinclude the preceding job flow 2200 x, as depicted, the DAG 2270 z thatresults may include an error indicator 2982 that may provide a textualdescription or other form of indication of the existence of a precedingjob flow that would have been included in the superset job flow 2200 z,if not for an inability to access sufficient information and/or all ofthe objects needed to do so. In some embodiments, such an errorindicator 2982 may include an indication of contact information forpersonnel to which a request may be made to in some way allow access tosuch information and/or other objects as would enable the inclusion ofthe preceding job flow 2200 x.

FIGS. 22A, 22B and 22C, together, illustrate at least a portion of analternate variant of a series of visual presentations 2980 of DAGs 2270that may be generated where, in an alternate variant of the request,and/or in an alternate variant of a response to a prompt, it isspecified that the superset job flow 2200 z be capable of repeating thegeneration of both of the result reports 2770 q 1 and 2770 q 1 b asoutput data objects.

Turning to FIG. 22A, where such a series of visual presentations 2980are generated, the depicted alternate visual presentation 2980 of a DAG2270 of the output job flow 2200 q 1 by which the result reports 2770 q1 a and 2770 a 1 b were previously directly generated in the pastperformance may be generated and/or presented to personnel operating thedevice 2100 or 2800, in lieu of the visual presentation 2980 of a DAG2270 shown in FIG. 21E. As depicted, such a DAG 2270 may not begenerated to provide a visual indication of any form of pruning as aresult of an analysis of the job flow 2200 q 1 leading to a conclusionthat the fact that both of the result reports 2770 q 1 a and 2770 q 1 bare required to be capable of being generated, again, necessitates notpruning any portion of the job flow 2200 q 1.

Turning to FIG. 22B, where such a series of visual presentations 2980are generated, the same depicted alternate visual presentation 2980 of aDAG 2270 of the output job flow 2200 q 1 introduced in FIG. 22A may alsobe visually presented in lieu of the visual presentation 2980 of a DAG2270 shown in FIG. 21F. Also, and regardless of whether a series ofvisual presentations 2980 are generated, the further analysis discussedin reference to FIG. 21F using the data object identifier 2331 x 2 ofthe mid-flow data set 2370 x 2 may be accompanied by a similar furtheranalysis using the data object identifier 2331 u 2 of the mid-flow dataset 2370 u 2. More precisely, the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by thedatabase component 2545 to additionally use the data object identifier2331 u 2 of the mid-flow data set 2370 u 2 to search the instance logdatabase 2567 for the instance log 2720 u that documents aspects of thepast performance of the preceding job flow that directly resulted in thegeneration of the mid-flow data set 2370 u 2. As depicted and alsopreviously discussed in reference to FIG. 20A, the mid-flow data set2370 u 2 was generated as a result of a past performance of the job flow2200 u. Thus, the job flow 2200 u becomes another preceding job flow tothe output job flow 2200 q 1. With the instance log 2720 u retrieved,the processor(s) 2550 may be caused by the selection component 2543 touse the job flow identifier 2221 u that uniquely identifies the job flow2200 u to search the job flow database 2562 for the job flow definition2220 u that defines aspects of the job flow 2200 u.

FIG. 22C depicts aspects of the generation of an alternate variant ofthe visual presentation 2980 z of the DAG 2270 z of the superset jobflow 2200 z that is depicted in FIG. 21G. As depicted, this alternatevariant of the DAG 2270 z may additionally include a depiction of thepreceding job flow 2200 u as another input job flow by which the flowinput data set 2330 u 1 was used as an input.

As also depicted, it may be that the generation of the mid-flow data set2370 u 3 by the past performance of the preceding job flow 2200 u isdepicted in the DAG 2270 z as an output generation that is to be pruned,and thereby not included in the superset job flow 2200 z. Alternatively,it may be that the DAG 2270 z does not depict the generation of themid-flow data set 2370 u 3, at all.

FIGS. 23A and 23B, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logicflow 3100. The logic flow 3100 may be representative of some or all ofthe operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.More specifically, the logic flow 3100 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 3110, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a device, via a network (e.g., one of the source devices2100, or one of the reviewing devices 2800, via the network 2999) andthrough a portal provided by the processor for access to other devicesvia the network, to add a new federated area to be connected to aspecified existing federated area. As has been discussed, such a portalmay employ any of a variety of protocols and/or handshake mechanisms toenable the receipt of requests for various forms of access to thefederated area by other devices, as well as to exchange objects withother devices, via the network.

At 3112, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of thespecified federated area (as well as for any related base federated areaand/or any related intervening federated area), and/or has been granteda level of access that includes the authorization to make such requests.Again, the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices and/or users from which such requests arereceived. If, at 3112, the processor determines that the request is notfrom an authorized device and/or is not from a person and/or entityauthorized as a user with sufficient access to make such a request, thenthe processor may transmit an indication of denial of the request to thedevice from which the request is received via the network at 3114.

However, if at 3112, the processor determines that the request isauthorized, then at 3120, the processor may allocate storage spacewithin the one or more federated devices, and/or within one or morestorage devices under the control of the one or more federated devices,for the requested new federated area that is connected to (e.g.,branches from) the specified existing federated area.

At 3130, the processor may generate a new global federated areaidentifier (GUID) that is to be used to uniquely identify the newfederated area (e.g., a new global federated area identifier 2569). At3132, the processor may add an indication of the creation of therequested new federate area, as well as the manner in which therequested new federated area is connected to the specified existingfederated area to a federated area database that may store indicationsof the existence of each federated area, which users and/or devices aregranted access to each, and/or how each federated area may be connectedor otherwise related to one or more others (e.g., within the portal data2539 and/or the federated area parameters 2536). In so doing, the newfederated area, the specified existing federated area and/or otherfederated areas may be identified and referred to within such databasesby their global federated area identifiers and/or human-readablefederated area identifiers (e.g., the human-readable federated areaidentifiers 2568), with the global federated area identifiers serving toresolve any conflict that may arise among the human-readable federatedarea identifiers).

At 3134, the processor may add an indication to such a database of aninheritance relationship among the new federated area, the specifiedexisting federated area, any base federated area to which the specifiedexisting federated area is related, and any intervening federated areapresent between the specified existing federated area and the basefederated area. As has been discussed, with such an inheritancerelationship in place, any object stored within any base federated areato which the specified existing federated area may be related, withinthe specified existing federated, and/or within any interveningfederated area that may be present between the specified existingfederated area and such a base federated area may become accessible fromwithin the new federated area as if stored within the new federatedarea.

At 3136, the processor may add an indication to such a database of apriority relationship among the new federated area, the specifiedexisting federated area, any base federated area to which the specifiedexisting federated area is related, and any intervening federated areapresent between the specified existing federated area and the basefederated area. As has been discussed, with such a priority relationshipin place, the use of objects stored within the new federated area isgiven priority over the use of similar objects (e.g., other taskroutines 2440 that perform the same task) that may be stored within anybase federated area to which the specified existing federated area maybe related, within the specified existing federated, and/or within anyintervening federated area that may be present between the specifiedexisting federated area and such a base federated area.

At 3140, the processor may check whether there is at least one otherexisting federated area that is connected to the requested new federatedarea within a set of related federated areas such that it is to have atleast an inheritance relationship with the requested new federated areasuch that it is to inherit objects from the requested new federatedarea. As has been discussed, this may occur where the requested newfederated area is requested to be instantiated at a position within alinear hierarchy or within a branch of a hierarchical tree such that itis interposed between two existing federated areas.

If, at 3140, there is such another federated area, then at 3142, theprocessor may add an indication to such a database of an inheritancerelationship among the other existing federated area, the requested newfederated area, the specified existing federated area, any basefederated area to which the specified existing federated area and theother federated area are related, and any intervening federated areapresent between the specified existing federated area and the basefederated area. In this way, any object stored within any base federatedarea, within the specified existing federated, within any interveningfederated area that may be present between the specified existingfederated area and such a base federated area, or within the requestednew federated area may become accessible from within the other existingfederated area as if stored within the other existing federated area.

At 3144, the processor may add an indication to such a database of apriority relationship among the other existing federated area, therequested new federated area, the specified existing federated area, anybase federated area to which the specified existing federated area isrelated, and any intervening federated area present between thespecified existing federated area and the base federated area. In thisway, the use of objects stored within the other existing federated areais given priority over the use of similar objects (e.g., other taskroutines 2440 that perform the same task) that may be stored within therequested new federated area, any base federated area to which thespecified existing federated area may be related, within the specifiedexisting federated, and/or within any intervening federated area thatmay be present between the specified existing federated area and such abase federated area.

FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C, 24D, 24E, 24F and 24G, together, illustrate anexample embodiment of a logic flow 3200. The logic flow 3200 may berepresentative of some or all of the operations executed by one or moreembodiments described herein. More specifically, the logic flow 3200 mayillustrate operations performed by the processor(s) 2550 in executingthe control routine 2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of atleast one of the federated devices 2500.

At 3210, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from another device, via a network (e.g., one of the sourcedevices 2100, or one of the reviewing devices 2800, via the network2999) and through a portal provided by the processor for access to otherdevices via the network, to store one or more objects (e.g., one or moreof the objects 2220, 2270, 2330, 2370, 2440, 2470, 2720 and/or 2770)within a specified federated area (e.g., one of the federated areas2566). As has been discussed, such a portal may employ any of a varietyof protocols and/or handshake mechanisms to enable the receipt ofrequests for various forms of access to a federated area by otherdevices, as well as to exchange objects with other devices, via thenetwork. Alternatively, at 3310, the processor may receive the one ormore objects, via the network, and in a transfer associated with asynchronization relationship between a transfer area instantiated withinthe particular federated area and another transfer area instantiatedwithin the other device, where the one or more objects are intended tobe stored within the transfer area within the particular federated area.

At 3212, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the other device that is an authorized userof the specified federated area, and/or has been granted a level ofaccess that includes the authorization to make such requests. As hasbeen discussed, the processor may require the receipt of one or moresecurity credentials from devices from which requests are received. If,at 3212, the processor determines that the request is not from a deviceand/or user authorized to make such a request, then the processor maytransmit an indication of denial of the request to the device via thenetwork at 3214.

However, if at 3212, the processor determines that the request to storeone or more objects within the specified federated area is authorized,then at 3220, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more data sets (e.g., one or more of the flow input datasets 2330 and/or one or more mid-flow data sets 2370). If so, then theprocessor may generate and assign a data object identifier for each dataset that is to be stored (e.g., one or more of the data objectidentifiers 3331) at 3222. At 3224, the processor may store each of theone or more data sets within the specified federated area. At 3226, theprocessor may also store indications of aspects of the storage of eachsuch data set (e.g., its size, whether stored as an undivided object orin a distributed manner, whether stored in distributable form (ifapplicable), the identity of the federated area in which it is storedand/or the identity of each device in which at least a portion of it isstored). As has been discussed, in some embodiments, such informationmay be stored as part of a separate data object location identifier(e.g., a data object location identifier 2332 or 2372) for each suchdata set.

At 3230, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more result reports (e.g., one or more of the resultreports 2770). If so, then the processor may generate and assign aresult report identifier for each result report that is to be stored(e.g., one or more of the result report identifiers 2771) at 3232. At3234, the processor may store each of the one or more result reportswithin the specified federated area. At 3236, the processor may alsostore indications of aspects of the storage of each such result report.As has also been discussed in reference to result reports, in someembodiments, such information may be stored as part of a separate resultreport location identifier (e.g., a result report location identifier2772) for each such result report.

At 3240, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more task routines (e.g., one or more of the taskroutines 2440). If so, then the processor may generate and assign a taskroutine identifier for each task routine that is to be stored (e.g., oneor more of the task routine identifiers 2441) at 3242. At 3244, theprocessor may store each of the one or more task routines within thespecified federated area. At 3246, the processor may additionally checkwhether any of the task routines stored at 3244 have the same flow taskidentifier as another task routine that was already stored within thespecified federated area (or within any base federated area to which thespecified federated area is related and/or within any interveningfederated area interposed therebetween), such that there is more thanone task routine executable to perform the same task. If so, then at3248 for each newly stored task routine that shares a flow taskidentifier with at least one other task routine already stored in thespecified federated area (or within such a base or intervening federatedarea), the processor may store an indication of there being multipletask routines with the same flow task identifier, along with anindication of which is the most recent of the task routines for thatflow task identifier.

As has been discussed, in embodiments in which task routines are storedin a manner organized into a database or other data structure (e.g., thetask routine database 2564 within one or more related federated areas)by which flow task identifiers may be employed as a mechanism to locatetask routines, the storage of an indication of there being more than onetask routine sharing the same flow task identifier may entailassociating more than one task routine with the same flow taskidentifier so that a subsequent search for task routines using that flowtask identifier will beget a result indicating that there is more thanone. As has also been discussed, the manner in which one of multipletask routines sharing the same flow task identifier may be indicated asbeing the most current version may entail ordering the manner in whichthose task routines are listed within the database (or other datastructure) to cause the most current one to be listed at a particularposition within that order (e.g., listed first).

At 3250, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more macros (e.g., one or more of the macros 2470). Ifso, then at 3252, the processor may additionally check, for each macro,whether there is a corresponding task routine (or corresponding multipleversions of a task routine in embodiments in which a single macro may bebased on multiple versions) stored within the specified federated area(or within any base federated area to which the specified federated areais related and/or within any intervening federated area interposedtherebetween). If, at 3252, there are any macros requested to be storedfor which there is a corresponding task routine (or correspondingmultiple versions of a task routine) stored in the specified federatedarea (or within such a base or intervening federated area), then foreach such macro, the processor may assign the job flow identifier (e.g.,one or more of the job flow identifiers 2221) of the corresponding taskroutine (or may assign job flow identifiers of each of the versions of atask routine) at 3254. At 3256, the processor may store each of suchmacros.

At 3260, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more job flow definitions (e.g., one or more of the jobflow definitions 2220). If so, then at 3262, the processor mayadditionally check, for each job flow definition, whether that job flowdefinition defines a job flow that uses a neural network and was trainedand/or tested using objects associated with another job flow (and/orperformances thereof) that is defined to by its job flow definition tonot use a neural network. As previously discussed, the preservation ofsuch links between a neuromorphic job flow and an earliernon-neuromorphic job flow from which the neuromorphic job flow may be insome way derived may be of importance to ensuring accountability duringa later evaluation of the neuromorphic job flow. For this reason, it maybe deemed important to ensure that objects associated with the othernon-neuromorphic job flow have already been stored in federated area(s)where they can be preserved for subsequent retrieval during such anevaluation of the neuromorphic job flow.

Presuming that there are no neuromorphic job flows requested to bestored that were derived from another non-neuromorphic job flow that isnot already so stored, then at 3264, the processor may additionallycheck, for each job flow definition, whether there is at least one taskroutine stored within the specified federated area (or within any basefederated area to which the specified federated area is related and/orwithin any intervening federated area interposed therebetween) for eachtask specified by a flow task identifier within the job flow definition.If, at 3264, there are any job flow definitions requested to be storedfor which there is at least one task routine stored in the specifiedfederated area (or within such a base or intervening federated area) foreach task, then for each of those job flow definitions where there is atleast one stored task routine for each task, the processor may generateand assign a job flow identifier (e.g., one or more of the job flowidentifiers 2221) at 3267, and at 3269, may then store each of the oneor more job flow definitions for which there was at least one taskroutine for each task. Otherwise, at 3265, for each job flow for whichthere is no task routine stored for one or more tasks, the processor maygenerate a DAG (e.g., one of the DAGs 2270) that provides a visualindication of the lack of task routines for each such task, and maytransmit the DAG to the other device.

At 3270, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more instance logs (e.g., one or more of the instancelogs 2720). If so, then at 3272, the processor may additionally check,for each instance log, whether each object identified in the instancelog by its identifier is stored within the specified federated area (orwithin any base federated area to which the specified federated area isrelated and/or within any intervening federated area interposedtherebetween). If, at 3272, there are any instance logs requested to bestored for which each specified object is stored within the specifiedfederated area (or within such a base or intervening federated area),then for each instance log where each object specified therein is sostored, the processor may generate and assign an instance log identifier(e.g., one or more of the instance log identifiers 2721) at 3275, and at3277, may then store each of the one or more instance logs for whicheach specified object is so stored. Otherwise, at 3273, for eachinstance log for which there is an identified object that is not stored,the processor may generate a DAG that provides a visual indication ofeach such missing object, and may transmit the DAG to the other device.

At 3280, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or DAGs. If so, then at 3282, the processor mayadditionally check, for each DAG, whether there is a corresponding taskroutine (or corresponding multiple versions of a task routine) for eachtask graph object (e.g., one of the task graph objects 2984) and whetherthere is a corresponding data object for each data graph object (e.g.,each data graph object 2983 or 2987) stored within the specifiedfederated area (or within any base federated area to which the specifiedfederated area is related and/or within any intervening federated areainterposed therebetween). If, at 3282, there are any of such DAGs to bestored in the specified federated area (or within such a base orintervening federated area) for which all of such task routines and dataobjects are so stored, then for each of such DAG, the processor maygenerate and assign a job flow identifier at 3285 in recognition of thepossibility that such a DAG may be used as a new job flow definition,and at 3286, may then store each of such DAGs. Otherwise, at 3265, foreach job flow for which there is no task routine stored for one or moretasks, the processor may generate a DAG (e.g., one of the DAGs 2270)that provides a visual indication of the lack of task routines for eachsuch task, and may transmit the DAG to the other device. Otherwise, at3283, for each DAG for which there is a task routine and/or a dataobject that is not stored, the processor may generate another DAG thatprovides a visual indication of each such missing object, and maytransmit the other DAG to the other device.

FIGS. 25A, 25B and 25C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of alogic flow 3300. The logic flow 3300 may be representative of some orall of the operations executed by one or more embodiments describedherein. More specifically, the logic flow 3300 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 3310, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a device, via a network (e.g., one of the source devices2100, or one of the reviewing devices 2800, via the network 2999) andthrough a portal provided by the processor for access to other devicesvia the network, to store a task routine (e.g., one of the task routines2440) within a particular federated area specified in the request (e.g.,one of the federated areas 2566). Again, such a portal may be generatedby the processor to employ any of a variety of protocols and/orhandshake mechanisms to enable the receipt of requests for various formsof access to the federated area by other devices, as well as to exchangeobjects with other devices, via the network. Alternatively, at 3310, theprocessor may receive the task routine, via the network, and in atransfer associated with a synchronization relationship between atransfer area instantiated within the particular federated area andanother transfer area instantiated within the other device, where thetask routine is intended to be stored within the transfer area withinthe particular federated area.

At 3312, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request or synchronization relationship transferis from an authorized device and/or from an authorized person or entity(e.g., scholastic, governmental or business entity) operating the devicethat is an authorized user of the specified federated area. As has beendiscussed, the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received and/or withwhich transfers of objects associated with synchronization relationshipsare performed. If, at 3312, the processor determines that there is nosuch authorization, then the processor may transmit an indication ofdenial of the storage of the task routine to the other device via thenetwork at 3314.

However, if at 3312, the processor determines that there is suchauthorization, then at 3320, the processor may check whether the taskroutine has the same flow task identifier as any of the task routinesalready stored within the particular federated area (or within any basefederated area to which the specified federated area is related and/orwithin any intervening federated area interposed therebetween), suchthat there is already stored one or more other task routines executableto perform the same task. If not at 3320, then the processor maygenerate and assign a task routine identifier for the task routine(e.g., one of the task routine identifiers 2441) at 3322. At 3324, theprocessor may store the task routine within the particular federatedarea in a manner that enables later retrieval of the task routine byeither its identifier or by the flow task identifier of the task that itperforms.

However, if at 3320, there is at least one other task routine with thesame flow task identifier already stored within the particular federatedarea (or within such a base or intervening federated area), then at3330, the processor may translate the portions of executableinstructions within each of these task routines that implement the inputand/or output interfaces to generate intermediate representation(s) ofthe input and/or output interfaces for each of these task routines. Ashas been discussed, it may be that different ones of these task routinesare written in different programming languages, which may make directcomparisons of implementations of input and/or output interfacesrelatively difficult, and it may be that the intermediaterepresentations generated for each include executable instructionsgenerated in an intermediate programming language to better facilitatesuch direct comparisons. Alternatively or additionally, the intermediaterepresentations may include a data structure of various values forvarious parameters of input and/or output interfaces that better enablesuch direct comparisons. At 3332, the processor may perform suchcomparisons using the intermediate representations.

Based on the results of those comparisons, the processor may check at3340: 1) whether the input interfaces (e.g., data interfaces 2443 thatreceive data from data objects, and/or task interfaces 2444 that receiveparameters from another task routine) are implemented in the taskroutine in a manner that is identical to those of the one or more othertask routines with the same flow task identifier that are already sostored, and 2) whether the output interfaces (e.g., data interfaces 2443that output a data object, and/or task interfaces 2444 that outputparameters to another task routine) are implemented in the task routinein a manner that is either identical to or a superset of those of theone or more task routines with the same flow task identifier that arealready stored within the federated area (or within such a base orintervening federated area). If at 3340, the input interfaces areidentical, and each of the output interfaces of the task routine isidentical to or a superset of the corresponding output interface withinthe one or more other task routine(s) already stored within thefederated area (or within such a base or intervening federated area),then the processor may generate and assign a task routine identifier forthe task routine at 3350. At 3352, the processor may store the taskroutine within the specified federated area in a manner that enableslater retrieval of the task routine by either its identifier or by theflow task identifier of the task that it performs. At 3354, theprocessor may also store an indication of there being multiple taskroutines with the same flow task identifier, along with an indication ofwhich is the most recent of the task routines for that flow taskidentifier.

However, if at 3340, the input interfaces are not identical, or theoutput interface(s) of the task routine are neither identical nor asuperset, then at 3342, the processor may generate a DAG (e.g., one ofthe DAGs 2270) that provides a visual indication of the mismatch, andmay transmit the DAG to the other device. If, at 3344, the task routinewas received in a transfer from the other device as a result of asynchronization relationship, then the processor may proceed with theassignment of a task routine identifier at 3350, followed by storage ofthe task routine, etc. As has been discussed, proceeding with thestorage of the task routine in spite of such a mismatch inimplementations of input and/or output interfaces may be deemeddesirable as it results in the synchronization relationship between thetwo transfer areas being maintained such that the contents of the twotransfer areas are caused to be synchronized with each other. It may bedeemed sufficient that the DAG providing a visualization of the detailsof the mismatch is generated and provided to the other device as amechanism to notify the developer(s) who created the task routine sothat they are able to correct it.

FIGS. 26A, 26B and 26C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of alogic flow 3400. The logic flow 3400 may be representative of some orall of the operations executed by one or more embodiments describedherein. More specifically, the logic flow 3400 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 3410, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from another device, via a network (e.g., one of the sourcedevices 2100, or one of the reviewing devices 2800, via the network2999) and through a portal provided by the processor for access to otherdevices via the network, to store a job flow definition (e.g., one ofthe job flow definitions 2220) within a particular federated areaspecified within the request (e.g., one of the federated areas 2566).Alternatively, at 3410, the processor may receive the job flowdefinition, via the network, and in a transfer associated with asynchronization relationship between a transfer area instantiated withinthe particular federated area and another transfer area instantiatedwithin the other device, where the job flow definition is intended to bestored within the transfer area within the particular federated area.

At 3412, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of thespecified federated area, and/or has been granted a level of access thatincludes the authorization to make such requests. As has been discussed,the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received. If, at 3412,the processor determines that the request is not from a device and/oruser authorized to make such a request, then the processor may transmitan indication of denial of the storage of the job flow definition to thedevice via the network at 3414.

However, if at 3412, the processor determines that the request to storea job flow definition within the specified federated area is authorized,then at 3420, the processor may check whether the job flow of the jobflow definition uses a neural network that was trained based on anotherjob flow that does not use a neural network. If, at 3420, the processordetermines that the job flow of the job flow definition does not use aneural network, or if at 3422, the processor determines that the otherjob flow definition is stored in the particular federated area (orwithin any base federated area to which the particular federated area isrelated and/or within any intervening federated area interposedtherebetween), then at 3430, the processor may check whether there is atleast one task routine stored within the federated area (or within anysuch base or such intervening federated area) for each task specified bya flow task identifier within the job flow definition.

However, if at 3420, the processor determines that the job flow of thejob flow definition does use a neural network, and if at 3422, the otherjob flow definition is not so stored, then at 3424, the processor maycheck whether the job flow definition was received in a transfer fromthe other device as a result of a synchronization relationship. If notthen, the processor may transmit an indication of denial of the storageof the job flow definition to the other device via the network at 3414.Otherwise, the processor may transmit an indication of an error arisingfrom the other job flow definition not being so stored at 3426, beforeproceeding to the check made at 3430.

If, at 3430, there is at one task routine stored in the particularfederated area (or within any base federated area to which theparticular federated area is related and/or within any interveningfederated area interposed therebetween) for each of the tasks specifiedby the job flow, then the processor may proceed to another check made at3440. However, if at 3430, there are no task routines stored within thefederated area (or within such a base or intervening federated area) forone or more of the tasks specified by the job flow, then at 3432, theprocessor may generate a DAG that provides a visual depiction of thelack of task routines for one or more tasks, and may transmit it to theother device. Then, if at 3434, the job flow definition was received ina transfer from the other device as a result of a synchronizationrelationship, the processor may proceed to the check made at 3440.

At 3440, the processor may check: 1) whether the input interfaces (e.g.,data interfaces 2443 that receive data from data objects, and/or taskinterfaces 2444 that receive parameters from another task routine) thatare implemented in the task routines stored in the federated area (orwithin such a base or intervening federated area) are identical to thosespecified in the job flow definition at 3440, and 2) whether the outputinterfaces (e.g., data interfaces 2443 that output a data object, and/ortask interfaces 2444 that output parameters to another task routine)that are implemented in the task routines that are already stored withinthe federated area (or within such a base or intervening federated area)are identical to or are supersets of those specified in the job flowdefinition.

If at 3440, the input interfaces are identical, and if all of the outputinterfaces of all of the task routines already so stored are eitheridentical to and/or are supersets of corresponding output interfacesspecified in the job flow definitions, then the processor may generateand assign a job flow identifier for the job flow definition at 3446,and at 3448, may store the job flow definition within the particularfederated area in a manner that enables later retrieval of the job flowby its identifier.

However, if at 3340, the input interfaces are not identical, or if anoutput interface of one or more of the task routines already so storedis neither identical nor a superset of a corresponding output interfacespecified in the job flow definition, then at 3442, the processor maygenerate a DAG that provides a visual indication of the mismatch, andmay transmit it to the other device via the network. If, at 3444, thejob flow definition was received in a transfer from the other device asa result of a synchronization relationship, the processor may proceed tothe generation and transmission of a DAG at 3446.

FIGS. 27A, 27B, 27C and 27D, together, illustrate an example embodimentof a logic flow 3500. The logic flow 3500 may be representative of someor all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments describedherein. More specifically, the logic flow 3500 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 3510, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a device, via a network (e.g., one of the source devices2100, or one of the reviewing devices 2800, via the network 2999) andthrough a portal provided by the processor, to delete one or moreobjects (e.g., one or more of the objects 2220, 2330, 2370, 2440, 2720and/or 2770) within a particular federated area specified in the request(e.g., one of the federated areas 2566).

At 3512, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of thespecified federated area, as well as any federated area that may branchfrom the specified federated area, and/or has been granted a level ofaccess that includes the authorization to make such requests. As hasbeen discussed, the processor may require the receipt of one or moresecurity credentials from devices from which requests are received. If,at 3512, the processor determines that the request is not from a deviceand/or user authorized to make such a request, then the processor maytransmit an indication of denial of the request to the device via thenetwork at 3514.

However, if at 3512, the processor determines that the request to deleteone or more objects within the specified federated area is authorized,then at 3520, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more data sets (e.g., one or more of the data sets 2330or 2370). If so, then the processor may delete the one or more data setsfrom the specified federated area at 3522. At 3524, the processor mayadditionally check whether there are any result reports or instance logsstored in the specified federated area (or within any federated areathat branches from the specified federated area) that were generated ina past performance of a job flow in which any of the one or more deleteddata sets were used. If so, then at 3526, the processor may delete suchresult report(s) and/or instance log(s) from the specified federatedarea and/or from one or more other federated areas that branch from thespecified federated area.

As previously discussed, it may be deemed desirable for reasons ofmaintaining repeatability to avoid a situation in which there is aninstance log that specifies one or more objects, such as data sets, asbeing associated with a performance of a job flow where the one or moreobjects are not present within any accessible federated area such thatthe performance of the job flow cannot be repeated. It is for thisreason that the deletion of a data set from the specified federated areais only to be performed if a check can be made within federated areasthat branch from the specified federated area for such objects asinstance logs and/or result reports that have such a dependency on thedata set to be deleted. And, it is for this reason that a request forsuch a deletion may not be deemed to be authorized unless received froma device and/or user that has authorization to access all of thefederated areas that branch from the specified federated area.

At 3530, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more result reports (e.g., one or more of the resultreports 2770). If so, then the processor may delete the one or moreresult reports from the specified federated area at 3532. At 3534, theprocessor may additionally check whether there are any instance logsstored in the specified federated area (or within any federated areathat branches from the specified federated area) that were generated ina past performance of a job flow in which any of the one or more deletedresult reports were generated. If so, then at 3536, the processor maydelete such instance log(s) from the federated area and/or from the oneor more other federated areas that branch from the specified federatedarea.

At 3540, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more task routines (e.g., one or more of the taskroutines 2440). If so, then the processor may delete the one or moretask routines from the specified federated area at 3542. At 3544, theprocessor may additionally check whether there are any other taskroutines stored in the specified federated area (or within a federatedarea that branches from the specified federated area) that share thesame flow task identifier(s) as any of the deleted task routines. If so,then at 3546, the processor may delete such task routine(s) from thespecified federated area and/or from the one or more other federatedareas that branch from the specified federated area. At 3550, theprocessor may additionally check whether there are any result reports orinstance logs stored in the specified federated area (or within afederated area that branches from the specified federated area) thatwere generated in a past performance of a job flow in which any of theone or more deleted task routines were used. If so, then at 3552, theprocessor may delete such result report(s) and/or instance log(s) fromthe specified federated area and/or from the one or more other federatedareas that branch from the specified federated area.

At 3560, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more job flow definitions (e.g., one or more of the jobflow definitions 2220). If so, then at 3562, the processor may deletethe one or more job flow definitions within the specified federatedarea. At 3564, the processor may additionally check whether there areany result reports or instance logs stored in the specified federatedarea (or within a federated area that branches from the specifiedfederated area) that were generated in a past performance of a job flowdefined by any of the one or more deleted job flow definitions. If so,then at 3566, the processor may delete such result report(s) and/orinstance log(s) from the federated area and/or from the one or moreother federated areas that branch from the specified federated area.

At 3570, the processor may check whether the one or more objectsincludes one or more instance logs (e.g., one or more of the instancelogs 2720). If so, then at 3572, the processor may delete the one ormore instance logs from the specified federated area.

FIGS. 28A and 28B, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logicflow 3600. The logic flow 3600 may be representative of some or all ofthe operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.More specifically, the logic flow 3600 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 3610, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a device, via a network (e.g., one of the reviewing devices2800 via the network 2999) and through a portal provided by theprocessor, to repeat a previous performance of a job flow that generatedeither a result report or an instance log (e.g., one of the resultreports 2770 or one of the instance logs 2720) specified in the request(e.g., with a result report identifier 2771 or an instance logidentifier 2721), or to provide the requesting device with the objects(e.g., one or more of the objects 2220, 2330, 2370, 2440, 2720 and/or2770) needed to enable the requesting device to do so. As previouslydiscussed, persons and/or entities involved in peer reviewing and/orother forms of review of analyses may operate a device to make a requestfor one or more federated devices to repeat a performance of a job flowto verify an earlier performance, or may make a request for the objectsneeded to allow the persons and/or entities to independently repeat theperformance.

At 3612, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of atleast one federated area, and/or has been granted a level of access thatincludes the authorization to make such requests. As has been discussed,the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received. If, at 3612,the processor determines that the request is not from a device and/oruser authorized to make such a request, then the processor may transmitan indication of denial of the request to the requesting device via thenetwork at 3614.

However, if at 3612, the processor determines that the request isauthorized, then at 3620, if the a result report was specified for theprevious performance in the request, instead of the instance log, thenat 3622, the processor may the use the result report identifier providedin the request for the result report to retrieve the instance log forthe previous performance. Alternatively, if the instance log wasspecified for the previous performance in the request, then at 3624, theprocessor may use the instance log identifier provided in the request toretrieve the instance log for the previous performance.

At 3630, regardless of the exact manner in which the instance log isretrieved, the processor may use the identifiers specified in theinstance log for the objects associated with the previous performance toretrieve each of those objects. It should be noted that, as has beenpreviously discussed, searches for objects to fulfill such a requestreceived from a particular requesting device may be limited to the oneor more federated areas to which that particular requesting deviceand/or a user operating the requesting device has been granted access(e.g., a particular private or intervening federated area, as well asany base federated area and/or any other intervening federated areainterposed therebetween). Therefore, the retrieval of objects used inthe previous performance, and therefore, needed again to independentlyregenerate the result report, may necessarily be limited to suchauthorized federated area(s).

At 3632, the processor may check whether the job flow relies on the useof a neural network that was trained using one or more performances ofanother job flow that does not relay on the use of a neural network. Ifso, then at 3634, the processor may use an identifier in either of thejob flow definition or instance log retrieved for the previousperformance that provides a link to the job flow definition or instancelog of the other job flow to retrieve objects associated with the otherjob flow and/or one or more performances of the other job flow.

Regardless of whether the job flow of the previous performance referredto in the request relies on the use of a neural network, if, at 3640,the request was to provide the objects needed to enable an independentrepeat of the previous performance of the job flow referred to in therequest, then at 3642, the processor may transmit the retrieved objectsassociated with that previous performance to the requesting device to soenable such an independent repeat performance. As previously discussed,the regenerated result report may be compared at the requesting deviceto the result report that was previously generated during the previousperformance to verify one or more aspects of the previous performance.However, if at 3640, the request received was not to so provide theretrieved objects, but instead, was for one or more federated devices torepeat the previous performance of the job flow, then at 3650, theprocessor may employ the objects retrieved at 3630 to repeat theprevious performance, and thereby regenerate the result report. Aspreviously discussed, in some embodiments, including embodiments inwhich one or more of the data sets associated with the previousperformance is relatively large in size, the processor of the federateddevice may cooperate with the processors of multiple other federateddevices (e.g., operate as the federated device grid 1005) to portions ofthe repeat performance among multiple federate devices to be carried outat least partially in parallel. At 3652, the processor may compare theregenerated result report to the result report previously generated inthe previous performance of the job flow. The processor may thentransmit the results of that comparison to the requesting device at3654.

However, if, at 3632, the job flow of the previous performance referredto in the request does rely on the use of a neural network, then, inaddition to retrieving objects associated with the other job flow at3634, the processor may check at 3660 whether the request was to providethe objects needed to enable an independent repeat of the previousperformance. If so, then at 3662, the processor may transmit theretrieved objects associated with that other job flow to the requestingdevice to enable aspects of the other job flow and/or one or moreperformances thereof to also be evaluated. However, if at 3660, therequest received was not to so provide the retrieved objects, butinstead, was for one or more federated devices to repeat the previousperformance of the job flow, then at 3670, the processor may employ theobjects retrieved at 3634 to perform the other job flow, and do so withthe data set(s) associated with the previous performance of the job flowreferred to in the request. At 3672, the processor may compare theresult report(s) generated by the performance of the other job flow tothe corresponding result reports regenerated from the repetition at 3650of the previous performance of the job flow referred to in the request.The processor may then transmit the results of that comparison to therequesting device at 3674.

FIGS. 29A and 29B, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logicflow 3700. The logic flow 3700 may be representative of some or all ofthe operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.More specifically, the logic flow 3700 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 3710, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a requesting device, via a network (e.g., one of thereviewing devices 2800 via the network 2999) and through a portalprovided by the processor, to repeat a previous performance a job flowwith one or more data sets (e.g. one or more of the flow input data sets2330) specified in the request by a job flow identifier and one or moredata object identifiers (e.g., one of the job flow identifiers 2221, andone or more of the data object identifiers 2331). As previouslydiscussed, persons and/or entities involved either in consuming resultsof analyses or in reviewing past performances of analyses may operate adevice to make a request for one or more federated devices to repeat aperformance of a job flow.

At 3712, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of atleast one federated area, and/or has been granted a level of access thatincludes the authorization to make such requests. As has been discussed,the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received. If, at 3712,the processor determines that the request is not from a device and/oruser authorized to make such a request, then the processor may transmitan indication of denial of the request to the device via the network at3714.

However, if at 3712, the processor determines that the request for arepeat of a performance of the specified job flow with the specified oneor more data sets is authorized, then at 3720, the processor may the usethe combination of the job flow identifier and the one or more dataobject identifiers to search within one or more federated areas to whichthe requesting device and/or a user of the requesting device has beengranted access for an instance log associated with a previousperformance of the job flow with the one or more data sets.

It should be noted that, as has been previously discussed, searches forobjects to fulfill such a request received from a requesting device maybe limited to the one or more federated areas to which that requestingdevice and/or a user operating the requesting device has been grantedaccess (e.g., a particular private or intervening federated area, aswell as any base federated area and/or any other intervening federatedarea interposed therebetween). Therefore, the retrieval of objectsneeded to repeat a previous performance of a job flow may necessarily belimited to such authorized federated area(s).

If, at 3730, the processor determines, as a result of the search at3720, that there is no such instance log, then at 3732, the processormay retrieve the job flow definition specified by the job flowidentifier provided in the request (e.g., one of the job flowdefinitions 2220) from the one or more federated areas for whichauthorization to access has been granted to the requesting device and/orthe user of the requesting device. At 3734, the processor may thenretrieve the most recent version of task routine for each task specifiedin the job flow definition by a flow task identifier (e.g., one or moreof the task routines 2440, each specified by a flow task identifiers2241) from the one or more federated areas to which access has beengranted. At 3736, the processor may retrieve each of the one or moredata sets specified by the one or more data object identifiers from theone or more federated areas to which access has been granted, and maythen use the retrieved job flow definition, the retrieved newestversions of task routines, and the retrieved one or more data sets toperform the job flow as requested. At 3738, the processor may transmitthe results of the performance to the requesting device. As analternative to (or in addition to) performing the job flow with the mostrecent versions of the task routines, the processor may transmit anindication to the requesting device that no record has been found of aprevious performance in the one or more federated areas to which accesshas been granted.

However, if at 3730, the processor successfully locates (during thesearch at 3720) such an instance log, then the processor mayadditionally determine at 3740 whether there is more than one suchinstance log, each of which is associated with a different performanceof the job flow with the one or more data sets specified in the request.If, at 3740, only one such instance log was located during the search at3720, then at 3750, the processor may then retrieve the versionsspecified in the instance log of each of the task routines specified inthe job flow definition for each task by a flow task identifier from theone or more federated areas to which access has been granted. At 3752,the processor may retrieve each of the one or more data sets specifiedby the one or more data object identifiers from the one or morefederated areas to which access has been granted, and may then use theretrieved job flow definition, the retrieved specified versions of taskroutines, and the retrieved one or more data sets to perform the jobflow as requested. At 3754, the processor may additionally retrieve theresult report generated in the previous performance of the job flow fromthe one or more federated areas to which access has been granted, andmay compare the retrieved result report to the new result reportgenerated in the new performance of the job flow at 3756. At 3758, theprocessor may transmit the results of the comparison of result reportsto the requesting device, and may transmit the new result report,itself, to the requesting device at 3758.

However, if at 3740, there is more than one such instance log locatedfound during the search at 3720, then the processor may transmit anindication of the available selection of the multiple previousperformances that correspond to the multiple located instance logs tothe requesting device at 3742 with a request that one of the multipleprevious performances be selected as the one from which the instance logwill be used. The processor may then await receipt of an indication of aselection of one of the multiple previous performances at 3744 beforeproceeding to retrieve specific versions of task routines at 3750.

FIGS. 30A, 30B, 30C and 30D, together, illustrate an example embodimentof a logic flow 3800. The logic flow 3800 may be representative of someor all of the operations executed by one or more embodiments describedherein. More specifically, the logic flow 3800 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 3810, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a device, via a network (e.g., one of the reviewing devices2800 via the network 2999) and through a portal provided by theprocessor, to perform a job flow with one or more data sets (e.g. one ormore of the flow input data sets 2330) specified in the request by a jobflow identifier and one or more data object identifiers (e.g., one ofthe job flow identifiers 2221, and one or more of the data objectidentifiers 2331).

At 3812, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of atleast one federated area, and/or has been granted a level of access thatincludes the authorization to make such requests. As has been discussed,the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received. If, at 3812,the processor determines that the request is not from a device and/oruser authorized to make such a request, then the processor may transmitan indication of denial of the request to the device via the network at3814.

However, if at 3812, the processor determines that the request for aperformance of the specified job flow with the specified one or moredata sets is authorized, then at 3820, the processor may the use the jobflow identifier provided in the request to retrieve the correspondingjob flow definition (e.g., one of the job flow definitions 2220) fromwithin one or more federated areas to which the requesting device and/ora user of the requesting device has been granted access. At 3822, theprocessor may then retrieve the most recent version of task routine foreach task specified in the job flow definition by a flow task identifier(e.g., one or more of the task routines 1440, each specified by a flowtask identifiers 1241) that is stored within the one or more federatedareas to which the requesting device and/or a user of the requestingdevice has been granted access.

It should be noted that, as has been previously discussed, searches forobjects to fulfill such a request received from a particular device maybe limited to the one or more federated areas to which that requestingdevice and/or a user operating the requesting device has been grantedaccess (e.g., a particular private or intervening federated area, aswell as any base federated area and/or any other intervening federatedarea interposed therebetween). Therefore, the retrieval of objectsneeded to perform a specified job flow may necessarily be limited tosuch authorized federated area(s).

At 3824, the processor may use the combination of the job flowidentifier and the one or more data object identifiers to search for aninstance log associated with a previous performance of the job flow withthe one or more data sets within the one or more federated areas towhich the requesting device and/or a user of the requesting device hasbeen granted access. If, at 3830, the processor determines (during thesearch at 3824) that there is no such instance log, then at 3832, theprocessor may then check whether all of the retrieved newest versions oftask routines are written in the same programming language. As has beendiscussed, there may be an expectation that, normally, task routines areall written in a single primary programming language that is normallysupported for executing the executable instructions within task routines(e.g., the executable instructions 2447). However, as has also beendiscussed, it may be that there is a mixture of two or more programminglanguages (e.g., the primary programming language along with one or moresecondary programming languages) among a set of task routines to beexecuted in performing the tasks of a job flow.

If, at 3832, all of the retrieved most recent versions of task routinesare written in the same programming language (e.g., the primaryprogramming language), then at 3834, the processor may retrieve each ofthe one or more data sets specified by the one or more data objectidentifiers from the one or more federated areas to which the requestingdevice and/or a user of the requesting device has been granted access,and may then use the retrieved job flow definition, the retrieved newestversions of task routines, and the retrieved one or more data sets toperform the job flow as requested. In so doing, the processor may becaused to use the same runtime interpreter or compiler to execute theexecutable instructions within all of the retrieved most recent versionsof task routines. At 3838, the processor may then transmit the resultsof the performance to the requesting device. However, if at 3832, thereis a mixture of programming languages is used among the retrieved mostrecent versions of task routines, then at 3836, the processor mayretrieve each of the one or more data sets specified by the one or moredata object identifiers from the one or more federated areas to whichthe requesting device and/or a user of the requesting device has beengranted access, and may then use the retrieved job flow definition, theretrieved newest versions of task routines, and the retrieved one ormore data sets to perform the job flow, but may do so using acombination of multiple different runtime interpreters and/or compilersto execute the executable instructions within each of those taskroutines. At 3838, the processor may then transmit the results of theperformance to the requesting device.

However, if at 3830, the processor successfully locates such an instancelog (during the search at 3824), then the processor may additionallydetermine at 3840 whether there is more than one such instance log, eachof which is associated with a different performance of the job flow withthe one or more data sets specified in the request. If only one suchinstance log is located at 3840, then at 3850, the processor may thenretrieve the versions specified in the instance log of each of the taskroutines for each task specified in the job flow definition by a flowtask identifier from the one or more federated areas to which therequesting device and/or a user of the requesting device has beengranted access. However, if at 3840, there is more than one suchinstance log located, then the processor may analyze the multipleinstance logs to identify and select the instance log from among themultiple instance logs that is associated with the most recentperformance of the job flow at 3842, before proceeding to retrievespecified versions task routines for each task of the job flow at 3850.

At 3852, for each task specified in the job flow definition, theprocessor may compare the retrieved version of the task routineidentified in the instance log to the newest version stored within theone or more federated areas to which the requesting device and/or a userof the requesting device has been granted access to determine whethereach of the retrieved task routines is the newest version. At 3860, ifeach of the retrieved task routines is the newest version thereof, thenthere is no need to perform the job flow anew, as the most recentprevious performance (or the only previous performance) already used thenewest version of each task routine such that the result reportgenerated is already the most up to date form of the result report,possible. Thus, at 3862, the processor may retrieve the result report ofthat previous performance using the result report identifier specifiedby the instance log from the one or more federated areas to which therequesting device and/or a user of the requesting device has beengranted access, and may then transmit the result report to therequesting device at 3734.

However, if at 3860, one or more of the task routines specified in theinstance log and retrieved from the one or more federated areas to whichthe requesting device and/or a user of the requesting device has beengranted access is not the newest version thereof, then at 3870, theprocessor may parse the job flow set forth in the job flow definition toidentify the earliest task within the job flow at which the version ofthe task routine so retrieved is not the newest version. At 3872, theprocessor may then check whether all of the newest versions of taskroutines, starting with the task routine for the identified earliesttask, proceeding through the task routines for each of the later tasksin the job flow, are written in the same programming language.

If, at 3872, all such retrieved newest task routines are written in thesame programming language, then at 3874, starting at the identifiedearliest task, the processor may use the newest version of task routinefor that task and for each later task in the job flow to perform thattask and each of the later tasks, thereby taking advantage of the one ormore earlier tasks of job flow at which the newest version of taskroutine was used in the most recent previous performance (or the onlyprevious performance). In so doing, the processor may be caused to usethe same runtime interpreter or compiler to execute the executableinstructions within all of such retrieved most recent versions of taskroutines. The processor may then transmit the result report generated insuch a partial performance of the job flow to the requesting device at3878. However, if at 3872, there is a mixture of programming languagesis used among these particular most recent versions of task routines,then at 3876, the processor may use the newest version of task routinefor that earliest identified task and for each later task in the jobflow to perform that task and each of the later tasks, but may do sousing a combination of multiple different runtime interpreters and/orcompilers to execute the executable instructions within each of thosetask routines. The processor may then transmit the result reportgenerated in such a partial performance of the job flow to therequesting device at 3878.

FIGS. 31A and 31B, together, illustrate an example embodiment of a logicflow 4100. The logic flow 4100 may be representative of some or all ofthe operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.More specifically, the logic flow 4100 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 in executing the control routine2540, and/or performed by other component(s) of at least one of thefederated devices 2500.

At 4110, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from another device, via a network (e.g., one of the sourcedevices 2100, or one of the reviewing devices 2800, via the network2999) and through a portal provided by the processor for access to otherdevices via the network, to store a data object (e.g., one of the flowinput data objects 2330, one of the mid-flow data objects 2370 or one ofthe result reports 277) within a particular federated area specifiedwithin the request (e.g., one of the federated areas 2566).Alternatively, at 4110, the processor may receive the data object, viathe network, and in a transfer associated with a synchronizationrelationship between a transfer area instantiated within the particularfederated area and another transfer area instantiated within the otherdevice, where the job flow definition is intended to be stored withinthe transfer area within the particular federated area.

At 4112, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of thespecified federated area, and/or has been granted a level of access thatincludes the authorization to make such requests. As has been discussed,the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received. If, at 4112,the processor determines that the request is not from a device and/oruser authorized to make such a request, then the processor may transmitan indication of denial of the storage of the job flow definition to thedevice via the network at 4114.

However, if at 4112, the processor determines that the request to storea job flow definition within the specified federated area is authorized,then the processor may generate and assign a data object identifier forthe data object at 4116.

If, at 4120, the size of the data object is not larger than apredetermined threshold size, then at 4122, the processor may providethe data object to at least one storage device of a set of storagedevices (e.g., one of the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or 2600 z), or toat least one federated device of a set of federated devices being usedto store objects (e.g., one of the federated devices 2500 a-x and/or2500 z) to be stored within the federated area specified in the requestas an undivided object within the storage space provided by a single oneof the set of storage devices, or federated devices, for the specifiedfederated area. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, thepredetermined threshold size may be determined to be set to be equal to(or in some other way based on) the threshold size used by the set ofstorage devices to determine whether to divide a data object intomultiple data object blocks. At 4124, the processor may also storeindications of aspects of the storage of the data object (e.g., itssize, whether stored as an undivided object or in a distributed manner,whether stored in distributable form (if applicable), the identity ofthe federated area in which it is stored and/or the identity of eachdevice in which at least a portion of it is stored).

However, if at 4120, the size of the data object is larger than thepredetermined threshold size, then at 4130, the processor may checkwhether the data object is already in a distributable form. Aspreviously discussed, a distributable form of a data object may entailhaving no distinct metadata data structure (e.g., the metadata 2338),and having the data items thereof organized into a single homogeneousdata structure (e.g., the data items 2339 organized into a singlehomogeneous data structure 2335 d). Further, in some of suchembodiments, there may be a limited preselected set of types ofhomogeneous data structure from which the type of the single homogeneousdata structure is to be selected.

If, at 4130, the data object is already in such a distributable form,then the processor may provide the data object to the set of storagedevices, or the set of federated devices being employed as a set ofstorage devices, to be divided up by that set of devices into multipledata object blocks (e.g., the data object blocks 2336 d) that are thenstored in a distributed manner as by being distributed among that set ofdevices such that each data object block is stored within a portion ofone of the devices that provides a portion of a distributed file systemthat spans that set of devices and in which the specified federated areahas been defined to also span that set of devices. Following suchdistributed storage, the processor may then store indications of aspectsof the storage of the data object at 4124.

However, if at 4130, the data object is not already in such adistributable form, then the processor may convert the data object fromthe form in which it was originally received and into a distributableform at 4140. At 4142, the processor may store indications of one ormore characteristics of the original form (e.g., the metadata 2338) forfuture use in re-creating the original form, before discarding theoriginal form at 4144, and then providing the distributable form to theset of storage devices, or of federated devices used as storage devices,at 4132. Alternatively, and as previously discussed, the processor mayprovide both the original and distributable forms of the data object tothe set of storage devices to enable both to be stored in a distributedmanner within the specified federated area. Again, following suchdistributed storage, the processor may then store indications of aspectsof the storage of the data object at 4124.

FIGS. 32A, 32B and 32C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of alogic flow 4200. The logic flow 4200 may be representative of some orall of the operations executed by one or more embodiments describedherein. More specifically, the logic flow 4200 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 or 2650 in executing one or morecomponents of the control routine 2540, and/or performed by othercomponent(s) of at least one of the federated devices 2500 and/or atleast one of the storage devices 2600.

At 4210, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a device, via a network (e.g., one of the source devices2100 or one of the reviewing devices 2800 via the network 2999) andthrough a portal provided by the processor, to perform a job flow withone or more data sets (e.g. one or more of the flow input data sets2330) specified in the request by a job flow identifier and one or moredata object identifiers (e.g., one of the job flow identifiers 2221, andone or more of the data object identifiers 2331).

At 4212, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of atleast one federated area, and/or has been granted a level of access thatincludes the authorization to make such requests. As has been discussed,the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received. If, at 4212,the processor determines that the request is not from a device and/oruser authorized to make such a request, then the processor may transmitan indication of denial of the request to the device via the network at4214.

However, if at 4212, the processor determines that the request for aperformance of the specified job flow with the specified one or moredata sets is authorized, then at 4220, the processor may the use the oneor more data object identifiers to access each data object and/or accessstored information concerning each data object to determine the size ofeach.

At 4222, if none of the one or more specified data objects is largerthan a predetermined threshold size, or if there are multiple dataobjects among the one of the one or more specified data object that arelarger than the predetermined threshold size, then at 4230, theprocessor may retrieve the specified one or more data objects, alongwith other objects needed to perform the job flow (e.g., a job flowdefinition 2220 and one or more task routines 2440) from a set ofstorage devices. At 4232, the processor and/or other processingresources of the federated device and/or of one or more other federateddevices may be used to perform the job flow, and the result of thatperformance may be transmitted to the requesting device at 4234.

However, if at 4222, there is a single data object among the one or morespecified data objects that is larger than the predetermined thresholdsize, then at 4240, the processor may retrieve the others of the one ormore specified objects (if there are such others) from the set ofstorage devices in which they are stored, as well as other objectsneeded to perform the job flow from the set of storage devices. At 4242,the processor may generate a container (e.g., the container 2565) toinclude the retrieved other data object(s) (if there are any), the otherobjects required for performing the job flow, and one or more executableroutines (e.g., a version of the performance routine 2544) to beexecuted using processing resources of the set of storage devices toenable performing the job flow using the processing resources of the setof storage devices.

At 4244, the processor may provide copies of the container to the set ofstorage devices such that each storage device thereamong is providedwith a copy of the container. At 4246, processor(s) of each storagedevice (e.g., the processor 2650 of a storage device 2600) of the set ofstorage devices that stores at least one data object block of the singlelarge data set may execute the executable routine to then perform thejob flow using the objects provided in the container, and using thelocally stored data object block(s) of the single large data object asan input. As previously discussed, such performances by multiple storagedevices within a set of storage devices may occur at least partially inparallel.

At 4250, with the performances of the job flow over, the processor mayretrieve, from each of the storage devices in the set of storage devicesthat performed the job flow, data object blocks of a result reportgenerated as a result of the job flow performances. At 4252, theprocessor may assemble the result report from the retrieved data objectblocks, and may generate and assign a result report identifier for theresult report at 4254. The processor may then transmit the newlyassembled result report to the requesting device at 4256.

If, at 4260, the size of the result report is not larger than apredetermined threshold size, then at 4262, the processor may providethe result report to at least one storage device of the set of storagedevices to be stored within a federated area as an undivided objectwithin the storage space provided by a single one of the set of storagedevices for that federated area. Again, as previously discussed, in someembodiments, the predetermined threshold size may be determined to beset to be equal to (or in some other way based on) the threshold sizeused by the set of storage devices to determine whether to divide a dataobject into multiple data object blocks.

However, if at 4260, the size of the result report is larger than thepredetermined threshold size, then at 4270, the processor may checkwhether the result report is already in a distributable form. Again, adistributable form of a data object or result report may entail havingno distinct metadata data structure (e.g., the metadata 2338), andhaving the data items thereof organized into a single homogeneous datastructure (e.g., the data items 2339 organized into a single homogeneousdata structure 2335 d). Further, in some of such embodiments, there maybe a limited preselected set of types of homogeneous data structure fromwhich the type of the single homogeneous data structure is to beselected.

If, at 4270, the result report is already in such a distributable form,then the processor may provide the result report to the set of storagedevices to be divided up by the set of storage devices into multipledata object blocks (e.g., the data object blocks 7336 d) that are thenstored in a distributed manner as by being distributed among the set ofstorage devices such that each data object block of the result report isstored within a portion of one of the storage devices that provides aportion of a distributed file system that spans multiple storage devicesand in which a federated area has been defined to also span the multiplestorage devices.

However, if at 4270, the result report is not already in such adistributable form, then the processor may convert the result reportfrom its original form and into a distributed form at 4280, beforeproviding the distributable form to the set of storage devices at 4272.

FIGS. 33A, 33B and 33C, together, illustrate an example embodiment of alogic flow 4300. The logic flow 4300 may be representative of some orall of the operations executed by one or more embodiments describedherein. More specifically, the logic flow 4300 may illustrate operationsperformed by the processor(s) 2550 or 2650 in executing one or morecomponents of the control routine 2540, and/or performed by othercomponent(s) of at least one of the federated devices 2500 and/or atleast one of the storage devices 2600.

At 4310, a processor of a federated device of a distributed processingsystem (e.g., at least one processor 2550 of one of the federateddevices 2500 of the distributed processing system 2000) may receive arequest from a device, via a network (e.g., one of the source devices2100 or one of the reviewing devices 2800 via the network 2999) andthrough a portal provided by the processor, to perform a one or moretasks specified in the request (e.g., with each task specified by itscorresponding flow task identifier 2241), and with one or more dataobjects specified in the request as inputs to each task (e.g. with eachof one or more data objects 2330, 2370 and/or 2770 to be used as inputsspecified in the request as inputs for each task specified usingcorresponding data object identifiers 2331, 2371 and/or 2771,respectively).

At 4312, in embodiments in which the federated device(s) that providefederated area(s) also control access thereto, the processor may performa check of whether the request is from an authorized device and/or froman authorized person or entity (e.g., scholastic, governmental orbusiness entity) operating the device that is an authorized user of atleast one federated area, and/or has been granted a level of access thatincludes the authorization to make such requests. As has been discussed,the processor may require the receipt of one or more securitycredentials from devices from which requests are received. If, at 4312,the processor determines that the request is not from a device and/oruser authorized to make such a request, then the processor may transmitan indication of denial of the request to the device via the network at4314.

However, if at 4312, the processor determines that the request for aperformance of the specified job flow with the specified one or moredata sets is authorized, then at 4320, the processor may check whetherthere area any data objects embedded in the request. As has beendiscussed, it may be that the request is formatted in a mannerconforming to at least one version of the MPI specification to at leastthe degree that it may embed one or more of the data objects that may beused as an input to at least one of the specified tasks as streamingdata.

If, at 4320, there are no data objects embedded within the request, thenat 4340, the processor may use the flow task identifiers (or whateverother type of identifier is used in the request for each task) toretrieve the most recent version of task routine for each task specifiedin the request. As has been discussed, in retrieving task routines, theprocessor may limit the federated areas from which it so retrieves taskroutines to those to which access is authorized.

At 4341, the processor may identify dependencies among the tasksspecified in request. As previously discussed, as part of identifyingdependencies, the processor may analyze each instance of thespecification of a data object as an input to one of the specified tasksand/or as an output from one of the specified tasks to identify anyinstances in which a dependency exists among two or specified tasks as aresult of a data object that is output by one of the specified tasksbeing used as an input to another of the specified tasks. Alternativelyor additionally, the processor may analyze the input interfaces andoutput interfaces of each of the retrieved task routines to identifyeach instance of an output interface of one task routine that matches aninput interface of another task routine, which may be an indication of adependency therebetween. As also previously discussed, within each taskroutine, there may be comments that describe its input and/or outputinterfaces in addition to the executable instructions that implementeach of those interfaces, and the processor may analyze either or bothof such comments (if present) and such executable instructions.

Regardless of the exact manner in which the processor identifiesdependencies, if, at 4343, a dependency error is identified, then theprocessor may transmit an indication of denial of the request to therequesting device at 4345. By way of example, it may be that theprocessor identifies an instance of a data object being specified asboth an input to and an output of the same task, or of the same set oftasks, such that an impossible situation of a data object being neededas an input before it can possibly be created as an output is beingspecified in the request. Alternatively or additionally, where theprocessor has also analyzed interfaces of the task routines, it may bethat an object is specified as an output of one task and an input toanother task where the output interface for that output of that one taskis incompatible with the input interface for that input of the othertask.

However, if no dependency error exists at 4343, at 4350, the processormay employ the earlier derived dependencies to derive an order ofperformance of the tasks as part of generating a new job flow for theperformance of the set of tasks of the request, and may check whetherthere are any opportunities for parallelism in the performance of thetasks at 4351. If no such opportunities for parallelism exist, then at4353, the processor may generate a job flow definition for theperformance of the set of tasks specified in the request that specifiesan entirely serial performance of those specified tasks. However, ifthere is such an opportunity for parallelism at 4351, then at 4354, theprocessor may generate the job flow definition to specify each of theone or more opportunities for the parallel performance of two or more ofthose specified tasks. Regardless of whether an entirely serial job flowdefinition is generated at 4353 or a job flow definition that specifiesone or more opportunities for parallelism is generated at 4354, theresulting job flow definition may also be generated by the processor tospecify aspects of input and/or output interfaces for each task by whichdata is received and/or output by each.

At 4356, the processor may generate a job flow identifier (e.g., a jobflow identifier 2221) for the new job flow, and may incorporate the newjob flow identifier 2221 into the newly generated job flow definition.At 4358, the processor may store the job flow definition generated ateither 4153 or 4154 within a federated area. At 4360, the processor maythen perform the job flow. In so doing, the processor may attempt toidentify opportunities for parallelizing the performance of individualtasks that may be afforded by the an object specified as an input to atask having been stored in distributed form such that multiple instancesof that task may be performed at least partially in parallel with eachblock of that object.

However, if at 4320, there are one or more data objects embedded withinthe request, then at 4322, then the processor may generate and assign adata object identifier for each of the one or more embedded data objectsat 4322.

At 4330, the processor may check if there are any of the one or moreembedded data objects that are smaller than a predetermined thresholdsize. If there are, then at 4331, the processor may provide each ofthose smaller data objects to at least one storage device of a set ofstorage devices (e.g., one of the storage devices 2600 a-x and/or 2600z), or to at least one federated device of a set of federated devicesbeing used to store objects (e.g., one of the federated devices 2500 a-xand/or 2500 z), to be stored within a federated area as an undividedobject within the storage space provided by a single one of thosedevices. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the predeterminedthreshold size may be determined to be set to be equal to (or in someother way based on) the threshold size used by a set of storage devices,or a set of federated devices being used to store objects, to determinewhether to divide a data object into multiple data object blocks.

At 4332, the processor may check if there are any of the one or moreembedded data objects that are larger than the predetermined thresholdsize, and that are already in distributable form. As previouslydiscussed, a distributable form of a data object may entail having nodistinct metadata data structure (e.g., the metadata 2338), and havingthe data items thereof organized into a single homogeneous datastructure (e.g., the data items 2339 organized into a single homogeneousdata structure 2335 d). Further, in some of such embodiments, there maybe a limited preselected set of types of homogeneous data structure fromwhich the type of the single homogeneous data structure is to beselected. If there are any such data objects at 4332, then at 4333, thenthe processor may provide each such data object to the set of storagedevices, or to the set of federated devices being employed as a set ofstorage devices, to be divided up by that set of devices into multipledata object blocks (e.g., the data object blocks 2336 d of a flow inputdata object 2330) that are then stored in a distributed manner as bybeing distributed among that set of devices such that each data objectblock is stored within a portion of one of the devices that provides aportion of a distributed file system that spans that set of devices andin which the specified federated area has been defined to also span thatset of devices.

At 4334, the processor may check if there are any of the one or moreembedded data objects that are larger than the predetermined thresholdsize, and that are not already in distributable form. If there are, thenat 4335, the processor may convert each such data object from itsnon-distributable form and into a distributable form, before providingeach such object in distributable form to the set of storage devices, orto the set of federated devices being employed as a set of storagedevices, to be divided up by that set of devices into multiple dataobject blocks that are then stored in a distributed manner. At 4336, theprocessor may store indications of one or more characteristics of theoriginal form (e.g., the metadata 2338) of each such object for futureuse in re-creating their original forms, before discarding theiroriginal forms at 4337. Alternatively, and as previously discussed, theprocessor may provide both the original and distributable forms of eachsuch data object to the set of devices to enable both to be stored in adistributed manner.

At 4338, the processor may also store indications of aspects of thestorage of each data object that was received as embedded in the request(e.g., its size, whether stored as an undivided object or in adistributed manner, whether stored in distributable form (ifapplicable), the identity of the federated area in which it is storedand/or the identity of each device in which at least a portion of it isstored). Following the storage of such information for each such object,the processor may then proceed to retrieving the most recent version oftask routine to perform each specified task at 4340.

In various embodiments, each of the processors 2150, 2550 and 2850 mayinclude any of a wide variety of commercially available processors.Further, one or more of these processors may include multipleprocessors, a multi-threaded processor, a multi-core processor (whetherthe multiple cores coexist on the same or separate dies), and/or amulti-processor architecture of some other variety by which multiplephysically separate processors are linked.

However, in a specific embodiment, the processor 2550 of each of the oneor more federated devices 1500 may be selected to efficiently performthe analysis of multiple instances of job flows at least partially inparallel. By way of example, the processor 2550 may incorporate asingle-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) architecture, may incorporatemultiple processing pipelines, and/or may incorporate the ability tosupport multiple simultaneous threads of execution per processingpipeline. Alternatively or additionally by way of example, the processor1550 may incorporate multi-threaded capabilities and/or multipleprocessor cores to enable parallel performances of the tasks of morethan job flow.

In various embodiments, each of the control routines 2140, 2540 and2840, including the components of which each is composed, may beselected to be operative on whatever type of processor or processorsthat are selected to implement applicable ones of the processors 2150,2550 and/or 2850 within each one of the devices 2100, 2500 and/or 2800,respectively. In various embodiments, each of these routines may includeone or more of an operating system, device drivers and/orapplication-level routines (e.g., so-called “software suites” providedon disc media, “applets” obtained from a remote server, etc.). Where anoperating system is included, the operating system may be any of avariety of available operating systems appropriate for the processors2150, 2550 and/or 2850. Where one or more device drivers are included,those device drivers may provide support for any of a variety of othercomponents, whether hardware or software components, of the devices2100, 2500 and/or 2800.

In various embodiments, each of the storages 2160, 2560 and 2860 may bebased on any of a wide variety of information storage technologies,including volatile technologies requiring the uninterrupted provision ofelectric power, and/or including technologies entailing the use ofmachine-readable storage media that may or may not be removable. Thus,each of these storages may include any of a wide variety of types (orcombination of types) of storage device, including without limitation,read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDR-DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory (e.g., ferroelectric polymer memory), ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, one or more individual ferromagneticdisk drives, non-volatile storage class memory, or a plurality ofstorage devices organized into one or more arrays (e.g., multipleferromagnetic disk drives organized into a Redundant Array ofIndependent Disks array, or RAID array). It should be noted thatalthough each of these storages is depicted as a single block, one ormore of these may include multiple storage devices that may be based ondiffering storage technologies. Thus, for example, one or more of eachof these depicted storages may represent a combination of an opticaldrive or flash memory card reader by which programs and/or data may bestored and conveyed on some form of machine-readable storage media, aferromagnetic disk drive to store programs and/or data locally for arelatively extended period, and one or more volatile solid state memorydevices enabling relatively quick access to programs and/or data (e.g.,SRAM or DRAM). It should also be noted that each of these storages maybe made up of multiple storage components based on identical storagetechnology, but which may be maintained separately as a result ofspecialization in use (e.g., some DRAM devices employed as a mainstorage while other DRAM devices employed as a distinct frame buffer ofa graphics controller).

However, in a specific embodiment, the storage 2560 in embodiments inwhich the one or more of the federated devices 2500 provide federatedspaces 2566, or the storage devices 2600 in embodiments in which the oneor more storage devices 2600 provide federated spaces 2566, may beimplemented with a redundant array of independent discs (RAID) of a RAIDlevel selected to provide fault tolerance to objects stored within thefederated spaces 2566.

In various embodiments, each of the input devices 2110 and 2810 may eachbe any of a variety of types of input device that may each employ any ofa wide variety of input detection and/or reception technologies.Examples of such input devices include, and are not limited to,microphones, remote controls, stylus pens, card readers, finger printreaders, virtual reality interaction gloves, graphical input tablets,joysticks, keyboards, retina scanners, the touch input components oftouch screens, trackballs, environmental sensors, and/or either camerasor camera arrays to monitor movement of persons to accept commandsand/or data provided by those persons via gestures and/or facialexpressions.

In various embodiments, each of the displays 2180 and 2880 may each beany of a variety of types of display device that may each employ any ofa wide variety of visual presentation technologies. Examples of such adisplay device includes, and is not limited to, a cathode-ray tube(CRT), an electroluminescent (EL) panel, a liquid crystal display (LCD),a gas plasma display, etc. In some embodiments, the displays 2180 and/or2880 may each be a touchscreen display such that the input devices 2110and/or 2810, respectively, may be incorporated therein astouch-sensitive components thereof.

In various embodiments, each of the network interfaces 2190, 2590 and2890 may employ any of a wide variety of communications technologiesenabling these devices to be coupled to other devices as has beendescribed. Each of these interfaces includes circuitry providing atleast some of the requisite functionality to enable such coupling.However, each of these interfaces may also be at least partiallyimplemented with sequences of instructions executed by correspondingones of the processors (e.g., to implement a protocol stack or otherfeatures). Where electrically and/or optically conductive cabling isemployed, these interfaces may employ timings and/or protocolsconforming to any of a variety of industry standards, including withoutlimitation, RS-232C, RS-422, USB, Ethernet (IEEE-802.3) or IEEE-1394.Where the use of wireless transmissions is entailed, these interfacesmay employ timings and/or protocols conforming to any of a variety ofindustry standards, including without limitation, IEEE 802.11a,802.11ad, 802.11ah, 802.11ax, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16, 802.20 (commonlyreferred to as “Mobile Broadband Wireless Access”); Bluetooth; ZigBee;or a cellular radiotelephone service such as GSM with General PacketRadio Service (GSM/GPRS), CDMA/1×RTT, Enhanced Data Rates for GlobalEvolution (EDGE), Evolution Data Only/Optimized (EV-DO), Evolution ForData and Voice (EV-DV), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), HighSpeed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), 4G LTE, 5G, etc.

However, in a specific embodiment, one or more of the network interfaces2190, 2590 and/or 2890 may be implemented with multiple copper-based orfiber-optic based network interface ports to provide redundant and/orparallel pathways in exchanging one or more of the data sets 2330 and/or2370.

In various embodiments, the division of processing and/or storageresources among the federated devices 1500, and/or the API architecturesemployed to support communications between the federated devices andother devices may be configured to and/or selected to conform to any ofa variety of standards for distributed processing, including withoutlimitation, IEEE P2413, AllJoyn, IoTivity, etc. By way of example, asubset of API and/or other architectural features of one or more of suchstandards may be employed to implement the relatively minimal degree ofcoordination described herein to provide greater efficiency inparallelizing processing of data, while minimizing exchanges ofcoordinating information that may lead to undesired instances ofserialization among processes. However, it should be noted that theparallelization of storage, retrieval and/or processing of portions ofthe data sets 2330 and/or 2370 are not dependent on, nor constrained by,existing API architectures and/or supporting communications protocols.More broadly, there is nothing in the manner in which the data sets 2330and/or 2370 may be organized in storage, transmission and/ordistribution via the network 2999 that is bound to existing APIarchitectures or protocols.

Some systems may use Hadoop®, an open-source framework for storing andanalyzing big data in a distributed computing environment. Some systemsmay use cloud computing, which can enable ubiquitous, convenient,on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computingresources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services)that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal managementeffort or service provider interaction. Some grid systems may beimplemented as a multi-node Hadoop® cluster, as understood by a personof skill in the art. Apache™ Hadoop® is an open-source softwareframework for distributed computing.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising a processor and astorage to store instructions that, when executed by the processor,cause the processor to perform operations comprising: receive, at theprocessor, and from a remote device via a network, a request to generatea superset job flow that incorporates multiple job flows, wherein: eachjob flow of the multiple job flows is defined by a corresponding jobflow definition as a set of tasks to be performed by execution of acorresponding set of task routines; each performance of a job flow ofthe multiple job flows is documented by a corresponding instance logthat specifies at least one data object used as an input to the job flowand at least one other data object generated as an output of the jobflow during the performance; the multiple job flows comprise an outputjob flow that has been performed to generate an output data object thatthe superset job flow is to be capable of re-generating; the multiplejob flows comprise at least one preceding job flow that has beenperformed to generate at least one mid-flow data object necessary to theperformance of the output job flow to generate the output data object;and for each job flow of the multiple job flows, the job flowdefinition, the corresponding set of tasks routines, and at least oneinstance log that documents at least one performance of the job flow arestored within at least one federated area; and analyze the instance logthat documents the performance of the output job flow that generated theoutput data object to identify the job flow definition of the output jobflow and to identify a first subset of the at least one mid-flow dataobject, wherein each mid-flow data object of the first subset wasgenerated as an output by a preceding job flow and used as input to theoutput job flow; use the identification of each mid-flow data object ofthe first subset to identify at least one instance log that documents aperformance of a preceding job flow that generated a mid-flow dataobject of the first subset; analyze each instance log of the at leastone instance log to identify a job flow definition of the correspondingpreceding job flow and to identify a second subset of the at least onemid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object of the secondsubset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow and used as aninput to another preceding job flow; in response to a lack ofidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset, generatea superset job flow definition that defines the superset job flow as aset of tasks that comprises at least one task specified in the job flowdefinition of the output job flow and at least one task specified in thejob flow definition of each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flowdata object of the first subset; generate a directed acyclic graph (DAG)of the superset job flow based on the superset job flow definition;store the DAG in the at least one federated area; and transmit anindication of the generation of the superset job flow to the remotedevice.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein in response to anidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset, theprocessor is caused to generate the a superset job flow definition thatdefines the superset job flow as a set of tasks that comprises at leastone task specified in the job flow definition of the output job flow, atleast one task specified in the job flow definition of each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset, andat least one task specified in the job flow definition of each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the second subset. 3.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is caused to: analyzethe job flow definition of the output job flow to identify at least onetask of the output job flow that was not necessary to the generation ofthe output data object; prune the at least one task from the output jobflow to generate a pruned form of the output job flow; limit theidentification of the first subset of the at least one mid-flow dataobject to one or more mid-flow data objects that were used as an inputto the pruned form of the output job flow; and limit the at least onetask specified in the job flow definition of the output job flow that isincluded in the superset job flow definition to at least one taskremaining in the pruned form of the output job flow.
 4. The apparatus ofclaim 3, wherein the processor is caused, for each preceding job flowthat generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset, to performoperations comprising: analyze the job flow definition of the precedingjob flow to identify at least one task of the preceding job flow thatwas not necessary to the generation of a mid-flow data object of thefirst subset; prune the at least one task from the preceding job flow togenerate a pruned form of the preceding job flow; limit theidentification of the second subset of the at least one mid-flow dataobject to one or more mid-flow data objects that were used as an inputto the pruned form of the preceding job flow; and limit the at least onetask specified in the job flow definition of each preceding job flowthat is included in the superset job flow definition to at least onetask remaining in the pruned form of the preceding job flow.
 5. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein: the request comprises a data objectidentifier that identifies the output data object; and the processor iscaused to perform operations comprising: use the data object identifierof the output data object to search, within the one or more federatedareas, for the instance log that documents the performance of the outputjob flow that generated the output data object; and use, from theinstance log that documents the performance of the output job flow thatgenerated the output data object of the output job flow, a job flowidentifier that identifies the output job flow to search for the jobflow definition of the output job flow within the one or more federatedareas.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the request comprises a jobflow identifier of the output job flow; and the processor is caused toperform operations comprising: use the job flow identifier of the outputjob flow to search, within the one or more federated areas, for the jobflow definition for the output job flow; analyze the job flow definitionof the output job flow to determine a quantity of data objects that areoutput by the output job flow; use the job flow identifier of the outputjob flow to search, within the one or more federated areas, for anyinstance log that documents a performance of the output job flow; and inresponse to an identification of no more than one instance log thatdocuments a performance of the output job flow, and in response to adetermination that the output job flow outputs more than one dataobject, transmit a prompt to the remote device to provide an indicationof a selection of the output data object from among the more than onedata objects.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein, in response toidentification of more than one instance log that documents aperformance of the output job flow, the processor is caused to transmita prompt to the remote device to provide an indication of at least oneof a selection of a performance from among the performances of theoutput job flow documented by the more than one instance log and aselection of the output data object.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the processor is caused to perform operations comprising:generate a series of DAGs that provide a visual indication of eachpreceding job flow in relation to the output job flow, wherein theseries of DAGs includes the DAG of the superset job flow; and transmitthe series of DAGs to the remote device to enable a visual presentationof the series of DAGs by the remote device.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein: the remote device or personnel operating the remote device havebeen granted access to a subset of storage space provided for thestorage of objects by the one or more DAGs; the search for a job flowdefinition for each preceding job flow is limited to the subset ofstorage space; and in response to identification of an instance log thatdocuments a performance of a preceding job flow that generated amid-flow data object of the first subset or of the second subset, and inresponse to lack of finding the job flow definition of the preceding jobflow within the subset of storage space, the processor is caused toperform operations comprising: generate the DAG of the superset job flowto include a visual indication of an inability to include the precedingjob flow in the superset job flow arising from the inability to find thejob flow definition for the preceding job flow; and transmit the DAG ofthe superset job flow to the remote device to enable a visualpresentation of the DAG with the visual indication.
 10. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein: the remote device or personnel operating the remotedevice have been granted access to a subset of storage space providedfor the storage of objects by the one or more DAGs; the search forobjects necessary to repeat each performance of each preceding job flowis limited to the subset of storage space; and in response toidentification of an instance log that documents a performance of apreceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the firstsubset or of the second subset, and in response to a lack of finding adata object used as an input to the performance of the preceding jobflow within the subset of storage space, the processor is caused toperform operations comprising: generate the DAG of the superset job flowto include a visual indication of an inability to include the precedingjob flow in the superset job flow arising from the inability to find thedata object used as an input to the performance of the preceding jobflow; and transmit the DAG of the superset job flow to the remote deviceto enable a visual presentation of the DAG with the visual indication.11. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitorymachine-readable storage medium, the computer-program product includinginstructions operable to cause a processor to perform operationscomprising: receive, at the processor, and from a remote device via anetwork, a request to generate a superset job flow that incorporatesmultiple job flows, wherein: each job flow of the multiple job flows isdefined by a corresponding job flow definition as a set of tasks to beperformed by execution of a corresponding set of task routines; eachperformance of a job flow of the multiple job flows is documented by acorresponding instance log that specifies at least one data object usedas an input to the job flow and at least one other data object generatedas an output of the job flow during the performance; the multiple jobflows comprise an output job flow that has been performed to generate anoutput data object that the superset job flow is to be capable ofre-generating; the multiple job flows comprise at least one precedingjob flow that has been performed to generate at least one mid-flow dataobject necessary to the performance of the output job flow to generatethe output data object; and for each job flow of the multiple job flows,the job flow definition, the corresponding set of tasks routines, and atleast one instance log that documents at least one performance of thejob flow are stored within at least one federated area; and analyze theinstance log that documents the performance of the output job flow thatgenerated the output data object to identify the job flow definition ofthe output job flow and to identify a first subset of the at least onemid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object of the firstsubset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow and used asinput to the output job flow; use the identification of each mid-flowdata object of the first subset to identify at least one instance logthat documents a performance of a preceding job flow that generated amid-flow data object of the first subset; analyze each instance log ofthe at least one instance log to identify a job flow definition of thecorresponding preceding job flow and to identify a second subset of theat least one mid-flow data object, wherein each mid-flow data object ofthe second subset was generated as an output by a preceding job flow andused as an input to another preceding job flow; in response to a lack ofidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset, generatea superset job flow definition that defines the superset job flow as aset of tasks that comprises at least one task specified in the job flowdefinition of the output job flow and at least one task specified in thejob flow definition of each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flowdata object of the first subset; generate a directed acyclic graph (DAG)of the superset job flow based on the superset job flow definition;store the DAG in the at least one federated area; and transmit anindication of the generation of the superset job flow to the remotedevice.
 12. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein inresponse to an identification of a mid-flow data object in the secondsubset, the processor is caused to generate the a superset job flowdefinition that defines the superset job flow as a set of tasks thatcomprises at least one task specified in the job flow definition of theoutput job flow, at least one task specified in the job flow definitionof each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of thefirst subset, and at least one task specified in the job flow definitionof each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of thesecond subset.
 13. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein theprocessor is caused: analyze the job flow definition of the output jobflow to identify at least one task of the output job flow that was notnecessary to the generation of the output data object; prune the atleast one task from the output job flow to generate a pruned form of theoutput job flow; limit the identification of the first subset of the atleast one mid-flow data object to one or more mid-flow data objects thatwere used as an input to the pruned form of the output job flow; andlimit the at least one task specified in the job flow definition of theoutput job flow that is included in the superset job flow definition toat least one task remaining in the pruned form of the output job flow.14. The computer-program product of claim 13, wherein the processor iscaused, for each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flow dataobject of the first subset, to perform operations comprising: analyzethe job flow definition of the preceding job flow to identify at leastone task of the preceding job flow that was not necessary to thegeneration of a mid-flow data object of the first subset; prune the atleast one task from the preceding job flow to generate a pruned form ofthe preceding job flow; limit the identification of the second subset ofthe at least one mid-flow data object to one or more mid-flow dataobjects that were used as an input to the pruned form of the precedingjob flow; and limit the at least one task specified in the job flowdefinition of each preceding job flow that is included in the supersetjob flow definition to at least one task remaining in the pruned form ofthe preceding job flow.
 15. The computer-program product of claim 11,wherein: the request comprises a data object identifier that identifiesthe output data object; and the processor is caused to performoperations comprising: use the data object identifier of the output dataobject to search, within the one or more federated areas, for theinstance log that documents the performance of the output job flow thatgenerated the output data object; and use, from the instance log thatdocuments the performance of the output job flow that generated theoutput data object of the output job flow, a job flow identifier thatidentifies the output job flow to search for the job flow definition ofthe output job flow within the one or more federated areas.
 16. Thecomputer-program product of claim 11, wherein: the request comprises ajob flow identifier of the output job flow; and the processor is causedto perform operations comprising: use the job flow identifier of theoutput job flow to search, within the one or more federated areas, forthe job flow definition for the output job flow; analyze the job flowdefinition of the output job flow to determine a quantity of dataobjects that are output by the output job flow; use the job flowidentifier of the output job flow to search, within the one or morefederated areas, for any instance log that documents a performance ofthe output job flow; and in response to an identification of no morethan one instance log that documents a performance of the output jobflow, and in response to a determination that the output job flowoutputs more than one data object, transmit a prompt to the remotedevice to provide an indication of a selection of the output data objectfrom among the more than one data objects.
 17. The computer-programproduct of claim 16, wherein, in response to identification of more thanone instance log that documents a performance of the output job flow,the processor is caused to transmit a prompt to the remote device toprovide an indication of at least one of a selection of a performancefrom among the performances of the output job flow documented by themore than one instance log and a selection of the output data object.18. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein the processor iscaused to perform operations comprising: generate a series of DAGs thatprovide a visual indication of each preceding job flow in relation tothe output job flow, wherein the series of DAGs includes the DAG of thesuperset job flow; and transmit the series of DAGs to the remote deviceto enable a visual presentation of the series of DAGs by the remotedevice.
 19. The computer-program product of claim 11, wherein: theremote device or personnel operating the remote device have been grantedaccess to a subset of storage space provided for the storage of objectsby the one or more DAGs; the search for a job flow definition for eachpreceding job flow is limited to the subset of storage space; and inresponse to identification of an instance log that documents aperformance of a preceding job flow that generated a mid-flow dataobject of the first subset or of the second subset, and in response tolack of finding the job flow definition of the preceding job flow withinthe subset of storage space, the processor is caused to performoperations comprising: generate the DAG of the superset job flow toinclude a visual indication of an inability to include the preceding jobflow in the superset job flow arising from the inability to find the jobflow definition for the preceding job flow; and transmit the DAG of thesuperset job flow to the remote device to enable a visual presentationof the DAG with the visual indication.
 20. The computer-program productof claim 11, wherein: the remote device or personnel operating theremote device have been granted access to a subset of storage spaceprovided for the storage of objects by the one or more DAGs; the searchfor objects necessary to repeat each performance of each preceding jobflow is limited to the subset of storage space; and in response toidentification of an instance log that documents a performance of apreceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the firstsubset or of the second subset, and in response to a lack of finding adata object used as an input to the performance of the preceding jobflow within the subset of storage space, the processor is caused toperform operations comprising: generate the DAG of the superset job flowto include a visual indication of an inability to include the precedingjob flow in the superset job flow arising from the inability to find thedata object used as an input to the performance of the preceding jobflow; and transmit the DAG of the superset job flow to the remote deviceto enable a visual presentation of the DAG with the visual indication.21. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a processor,and from a remote device via a network, a request to generate a supersetjob flow that incorporates multiple job flows, wherein: each job flow ofthe multiple job flows is defined by a corresponding job flow definitionas a set of tasks to be performed by execution of a corresponding set oftask routines; each performance of a job flow of the multiple job flowsis documented by a corresponding instance log that specifies at leastone data object used as an input to the job flow and at least one otherdata object generated as an output of the job flow during theperformance; the multiple job flows comprise an output job flow that hasbeen performed to generate an output data object that the superset jobflow is to be capable of re-generating; the multiple job flows compriseat least one preceding job flow that has been performed to generate atleast one mid-flow data object necessary to the performance of theoutput job flow to generate the output data object; and for each jobflow of the multiple job flows, the job flow definition, thecorresponding set of tasks routines, and at least one instance log thatdocuments at least one performance of the job flow are stored within atleast one federated area; and analyzing, by the processor, the instancelog that documents the performance of the output job flow that generatedthe output data object to identify the job flow definition of the outputjob flow and to identify a first subset of the at least one mid-flowdata object, wherein each mid-flow data object of the first subset wasgenerated as an output by a preceding job flow and used as input to theoutput job flow; using, by the processor, the identification of eachmid-flow data object of the first subset to identify at least oneinstance log that documents a performance of a preceding job flow thatgenerated a mid-flow data object of the first subset; analyzing, by theprocessor, each instance log of the at least one instance log toidentify a job flow definition of the corresponding preceding job flowand to identify a second subset of the at least one mid-flow dataobject, wherein each mid-flow data object of the second subset wasgenerated as an output by a preceding job flow and used as an input toanother preceding job flow; in response to a lack of identification of amid-flow data object in the second subset, generating, by the processor,a superset job flow definition that defines the superset job flow as aset of tasks that comprises at least one task specified in the job flowdefinition of the output job flow and at least one task specified in thejob flow definition of each preceding job flow that generated a mid-flowdata object of the first subset; generating, by the processor, adirected acyclic graph (DAG) of the superset job flow based on thesuperset job flow definition; storing the DAG in the at least onefederated area; and transmitting, from the processor, an indication ofthe generation of the superset job flow to the remote device.
 22. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising, in response to anidentification of a mid-flow data object in the second subset,generating, by the processor, the a superset job flow definition thatdefines the superset job flow as a set of tasks that comprises at leastone task specified in the job flow definition of the output job flow, atleast one task specified in the job flow definition of each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset, andat least one task specified in the job flow definition of each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the second subset. 23.The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising: analyzing, bythe processor, the job flow definition of the output job flow toidentify at least one task of the output job flow that was not necessaryto the generation of the output data object; pruning, by the processor,the at least one task from the output job flow to generate a pruned formof the output job flow; limiting, by the processor, the identificationof the first subset of the at least one mid-flow data object to one ormore mid-flow data objects that were used as an input to the pruned formof the output job flow; and limiting, by the processor, the at least onetask specified in the job flow definition of the output job flow that isincluded in the superset job flow definition to at least one taskremaining in the pruned form of the output job flow.
 24. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 23, comprising, for each precedingjob flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the first subset,performing operations comprising: analyzing, by the processor, the jobflow definition of the preceding job flow to identify at least one taskof the preceding job flow that was not necessary to the generation of amid-flow data object of the first subset; pruning, by the processor, theat least one task from the preceding job flow to generate a pruned formof the preceding job flow; limiting, by the processor, theidentification of the second subset of the at least one mid-flow dataobject to one or more mid-flow data objects that were used as an inputto the pruned form of the preceding job flow; and limiting, by theprocessor, the at least one task specified in the job flow definition ofeach preceding job flow that is included in the superset job flowdefinition to at least one task remaining in the pruned form of thepreceding job flow.
 25. The computer-implemented method of claim 21,wherein: the request comprises a data object identifier that identifiesthe output data object; and the method comprises: using, by theprocessor, the data object identifier of the output data object tosearch, within the one or more federated areas, for the instance logthat documents the performance of the output job flow that generated theoutput data object; and using, by the processor and from the instancelog that documents the performance of the output job flow that generatedthe output data object of the output job flow, a job flow identifierthat identifies the output job flow to search for the job flowdefinition of the output job flow within the one or more federatedareas.
 26. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein: therequest comprises a job flow identifier of the output job flow; and themethod comprises: using, by the processor, the job flow identifier ofthe output job flow to search, within the one or more federated areas,for the job flow definition for the output job flow; analyzing, by theprocessor, the job flow definition of the output job flow to determine aquantity of data objects that are output by the output job flow; using,by the processor, the job flow identifier of the output job flow tosearch, within the one or more federated areas, for any instance logthat documents a performance of the output job flow; and in response toan identification of no more than one instance log that documents aperformance of the output job flow, and in response to a determinationthat the output job flow outputs more than one data object,transmitting, from the processor, a prompt to the remote device toprovide an indication of a selection of the output data object fromamong the more than one data objects.
 27. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 26, comprising, in response to identification of morethan one instance log that documents a performance of the output jobflow, transmitting, from the processor, a prompt to the remote device toprovide an indication of at least one of a selection of a performancefrom among the performances of the output job flow documented by themore than one instance log and a selection of the output data object.28. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising: generating,by the processor, a series of DAGs that provide a visual indication ofeach preceding job flow in relation to the output job flow, wherein theseries of DAGs includes the DAG of the superset job flow; andtransmitting, from the processor, the series of DAGs to the remotedevice to enable a visual presentation of the series of DAGs by theremote device.
 29. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein:the remote device or personnel operating the remote device have beengranted access to a subset of storage space provided for the storage ofobjects by the one or more DAGs; the search for a job flow definitionfor each preceding job flow is limited to the subset of storage space;and the method comprises, in response to identification of an instancelog that documents a performance of a preceding job flow that generateda mid-flow data object of the first subset or of the second subset, andin response to lack of finding the job flow definition of the precedingjob flow within the subset of storage space, performing operationscomprising: generating, by the processor, the DAG of the superset jobflow to include a visual indication of an inability to include thepreceding job flow in the superset job flow arising from the inabilityto find the job flow definition for the preceding job flow; andtransmitting, by the processor, the DAG of the superset job flow to theremote device to enable a visual presentation of the DAG with the visualindication.
 30. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, wherein:the remote device or personnel operating the remote device have beengranted access to a subset of storage space provided for the storage ofobjects by the one or more DAGs; the search for objects necessary torepeat each performance of each preceding job flow is limited to thesubset of storage space; and the method comprises, in response toidentification of an instance log that documents a performance of apreceding job flow that generated a mid-flow data object of the firstsubset or of the second subset, and in response to a lack of finding adata object used as an input to the performance of the preceding jobflow within the subset of storage space, performing operationscomprising: generate the DAG of the superset job flow to include avisual indication of an inability to include the preceding job flow inthe superset job flow arising from the inability to find the data objectused as an input to the performance of the preceding job flow; andtransmit the DAG of the superset job flow to the remote device to enablea visual presentation of the DAG with the visual indication.